Henry Redmond

            Henry W. Redmond was born in Cumberland County, England c.1814, and arrived in Texas by the late 1830s. (photo from The Kingdom of Zapata)

One of the earliest records of Henry Redmond in Texas places him in Galveston, where he was issued a headright certificate in April of 1839.  In 1841 he was a resident of Victoria involved in trade with Mexico, from where he testified on behalf of H. L. Kinney and William P. Aubrey, who had been accused of treason related to their trips to Mexico to secure trade (Houston Telegraph and Register August 25^th 1841).  His activity as an early trader between Texas and Mexico is further confirmed by his presence on the manifest of the Schooner Watchman which arrived in New Orleans, LA from Matamoros, Mexico on 27^th April 1843.  He was listed as being a 28 year old merchant at the time, and a native of England.   Later in 1843, Henry Redmond was appointed collector of the District of Aransas (Texas Telegraph and Register November 22^nd 1843).  At this time, Aransas was the most established Southern port in Texas.  As the trade centers began moving further south he followed, moving to Corpus Christi shortly after its establishment where he became a partner with William B. Mann.  There he laid the foundation of business relationships with many of the other pioneering South Texas traders, ranchers, and real estate speculators of the day (Henry Kinney, Frederick Belden, Britton Forbes, H. Clay Davis, Jack Everitt, etc.)  During this time he remained actively involved in developing new trade routes between Mexico and Texas, as witnessed by a few of the surviving accounts of his activities:

“Mr. Redmond, the partner of Mr. Mann arrived this morning from a very successful commercial trip through the Northern provinces of Mexico.  He was accompanied by Major Collingsworth, Capt. Jack Everitt, Mr. Robt. Mitchell and some other gentlemen.”  (The Corpus Christi Star, February 3^rd 1849)

“Our Townsmen, Mr. Redmond, of the house of Wm. Mann & Co., returned day before yesterday from Monterey, Salinas, Sabinas, and Mier, in Mexico.  We cannot resist the temptation of giving a passing compliment to Mr. Redmond for the persevering energy with which he has contributed so much to the development of our commercial relations with Mexico for a series of years past.  Though a refined and accomplished gentleman, he is ever ready when the occasion demands to discard the habiliments of genteel life, and in the garb of the frontiersman pass days and weeks in the wilderness, entirely out of the range of human habilitation.  He was accompanied by our old friends Capt. Everitt, of Buena Vista, a congenial spirit and to whom all the above remarks justly apply, and also by Mr. Paulsen from the Island of St. Thomas….(The Corpus Christi Star, August 11^th 1849)

He remained a resident of Corpus Christi and partner with Mann through 1849, where he had married Louisa Bowie Baskin, the sister of Ester Baskin, William Mann’s wife.  Louisa died in 1849, and it appears they had no surviving children.

In 1850, he moved his residence into the rapidly developing Rio Grande Valley, which became a frenzy of rapid development of ranches, agriculture, and new trading routes following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  He established a sizeable ranch on his land across the Rio Grande from Guerrero in present day Zapata County.  This settlement was initially known as Bellville, or Redmond Ranch, and later Carrizo, and eventually Zapata.  It was from Bellville in 1850, that he served as president of a committee of citizens who protested U. S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton’s attempt to limit the recognized boundaries of Texas so as to reduce the area in which slavery was legally recognized (Democratic Telegraph and Texas Register April 11^th 1850.)  Henry Redmond was among the few pioneering real estate developers who founded relatively permanent settlements along the middle of the Rio Grande Valley, such as Henry Clay Davis (Rio Grande City), the Garcia brothers (Roma), Jack C. Hays and Jack Everitt (Buena Vista/Alamo), etc.  During these early years, these settlements were small, isolated, and vulnerable to attack by Indians as well as bandits from either side of the border.  For this reason, when Henry Redmond erected his first permanent building at his ranch, “a white stone and adobe two story building known as the ‘Redmond Building,’ ” defensive fortifications were added “it was surrounded by a high rock wall, or stockade, and with a cannon mounted thereon as a protection against attacks from Comanches and other aborigines” (The Kingdom of Zapata, p. 247).  Being in a particularly isolated stretch of the Rio Grande between Rio Grande City and Laredo, Redmond’s Ranch was frequently the subject of raids, as attested to in numerous surviving newspaper and historical accounts.  Redmond partnered with Forbes Britton, H. Clay Davis, Charles Stillman, D. H. Howard, and Frederick Belden to establish the Western Artesian Well Company in 1857, to provide for the drilling of wells along the roads between Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Brownsville, Rio Grande City and Laredo, in order to improve the improve the overland trade routes in this part of Texas.

Redmond also played a leading role in the establishment of government in the area of present-day Zapata County.  He was appointed the first postmaster of Carrizo on January 16^th 1854, being reappointed on July 12^th 1861 as the Confederate postmaster, and appointed again on February 4^th 1867 as the U.S. Postmaster.  He was appointed as the first Chief Justice of the district upon the organization of Zapata County in 1858, retaining the position and the title “Judge Redmond” throughout the Civil War.

Once he had established himself on the Rio Grande, Henry Redmond married Refugio Diaz, daughter of Agapita and Teodoro Cuellar Diaz in Guerrero Mexico c. 1853.  They had at least four children.  The later three survived to adulthood. (The Kingdom of Zapata, p. 248)  [Parish of Roma Church records]

1. Jose Henrique Redmond b. 26 July 1854 at Redmond Ranch
2. Sarah Redmond de Luna b. 20 October 1858 in Carrizo, TX
3. Henry Redmond b. 16 April 1860 in Carrizo, TX
4. John B. Redmond b. 8 May 1861 in Carrizo, TX

With the establishment of Zapata County in 1858, the bulk of the economic and political power rested in the hands of a small number of Anglo and Tejano land owners, including Redmond, Deputy Collector John D. Mussett, Judge Isidro Vela, Sheriff Pedro Diaz, etc.  In the spring of 1861, discontent among the working class Tejanos, exacerbated by the disappointment with the growing successionist movement among the political leadership, inspired an insurrection within the county led by Antonio Ochoa.  Matthew Nolan, the captain of a days-old Confederate unit, responded brutally by killing dozens, including a number of purportedly unarmed insurrectionists.  The heavy-handed response stirred Juan Cortina to seek lethal revenge, specifically on Redmond, Vela, Diaz and Mussett. (Cortina, Defending the Mexican Name in Texas 97-100.)  Capt. Benavides, of the Confederate Cavalry, arrived at Redmond’s Ranch in time to defend them against a vastly superior force.  While under siege, Cortina sent a request for Benavides to abandon Redmond and his friends to their deaths, as he had no complaint with Benavides.  But Benavides remained loyal to Redmond.   Reinforcements arrived in time to enable the Confederate troops to force Cortina across the Rio Grande with heavy losses. 

Throughout the course of the war, raids by Cortina and his affiliates, largely believed to be funded and encourage by the Union representatives in the region, infiltrated the border to kill many prominent Confederate ranchers.  In December of 1862, a band of raiders did succeed in attacking Isidro Vela’s rancho and hanging him in front of his family:

“About the middle of December a train of supplies for Ringgold Barrack was attacked at Soledad Rancho.  The party was surprised and made to no resistance.  The party were all killed and the train robbed.

About the same time, Capt. Benevides’ company was attacked in Zapata county, and all their horses stampeded.

Another party of 200 captured and hung Isodor Vela, Chief Justice of Zapata Co.  Subsequently they attacked Benevides’ company and made a sharp fight, in which two men were killed, one of them being H. Redmond.

It is estimated that from three to five hundred Mexicans have been organized for the purpose of plundering our frontier, and that these offensive measures have been taken under the knowledge and probably the approval of the Mexican authorities.  The ammunition for these raids was procured at Matamoras.  The banditti are still on this side the river, and it is said some of them are under the U. S. flag  (The Weekly Telegraph, Houston, TX  January 28^th 1863.)

                Despite this report, Henry Redmond did survive this raid.  However, because of the lethal chaos along the Rio Grande during much of the Civil War, the Redmond family moved across the Rio Grande to Guerrero and to the home of his mother-in-law Agapita Cuellar Diaz.  For the year of 1864, H. Redmond was appointed as the collector of Taxes for Zapata County.  Refugio Diaz Redmond died around the close of the war (c. 1865), at which time Henry sent his 3 children to stay with the family of Frederick Belden in Corpus Christi so that they might receive a proper schooling.

Redmond continued his activities as a rancher and trader after the war.  Records from his 1866 IRS taxes confirm that he still had a sizable cattle ranch in Zapata county, as well as a butcher shop in Laredo, from which he presumably distributed a sizable portion of his beef production.  In 1864, he was joined by another Englishman, a Dr. David D. Lovell, who acted as one of Redmond’s clerks at the ranch through the remainder of the 1860s, (though Dr. Lovell too would die at the hands of Mexican bandits in Carrizo in 1875.)

In 1869, while Henry Redmond was ill, Redmond’s Ranch was attacked again by bandits from Mexico.  As one of his sons was present at the time, Henry Redmond pleaded that the bandits take whatever they like, as long as they did not harm any of his family:

“Murder and Robbery at Carrizo. 
            We have heard a portion of the particulars of one of these blood transactions, which occurred in Zapata County, on the night of the 27th ult.  It appears that seven persons clubbed together for the purpose of robbing Mr. Henry Redmond, among whom was one of his servants.  A clerk of Mr. Redmond’s, a Mr. Simpson, was murdered by the gang.  They obtained the keys of the safe, and succeeded in getting about seven hundred dollars in specie.  The party after dividing the spoils left that section of the country, three of whom went into Mexico, and four started down the American side of the Rio Grande.  Extraordinary vigilance was exerted on the part of civil and military authorities to capture the murderers and robbers, but failed in doing so.  The party were evidently disappointed in getting so little money.  This event constitutes one more hair-breadth escape for Mr. Redmond with his life.  On several occasions before he has been infested by bandits.  Such is border life. - Brownsville Ranchero (The Houston Telegraph, January 27th 1870)  

Suffering from continued ill health following this incident, Henry Redmond brought his son to stay with the two other Redmond children in Corpus with Mauricia Belden, the widow of Frederick Belden.  Under the advice of his physician, he went to recuperate in Hot Springs, AR.  According to family tradition, although he survived the endless raids of banditos, he died while in Hot Springs AR in 1870. (The Kingdom of Zapata, p. 248) 

From 1882-1885 there were extended legal maneuverings in Nueces Country regarding the vast real estate holdings of Henry Redmond, which were split equally between his three adult children: Sarah Redmond de Luna, Henry Redmond, and John B. Redmond.

 

Research of Henry Redmond by Scott M. Grayson

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