The following is ALL from the book ECHOES FROM WOMEN OF THE ALAMO, by Gale Hamilton Shiffrin (1999, AW Press) Chapter Four: JUANA NAVARRO PEREZ ALSBURY And GERTRUDIS NAVARRO “I have neither money nor husband.” This declaration reportedly was made by a terrified GERTRUDIS NAVARRO, younger sister of JUANA NAVARRO PEREZ ALSBURY, during the height of the intense fighting in the Alamo. A Mexican soldier came to the rooms the two women were occupying along the west side of the compound, and when GERTRUDIS opened the door the soldier demanded, as he tore her shawl from around her shoulders, ‘Your money and your husband!’ Her reply of, ‘I have neither money nor husband,’ was indeed true of her circumstances at the time, but ironically the same could be said for her sister, JUANA’s situation, also, much of the time, particularly in the later years of her life. For while JUANA had at least two husbands during her lifetime, and some reports say she had a third, she never seemed to have one when she needed one most and she never seemed to have any money during those later years so she claimed. From an early substantial beginning as a member of two highly respected and reportedly wealthy families, JUANA NAVARRO’s life led her through many colorful, adventurous, and dramatic periods. However, that affluent and exciting life eventually grew into one in which she was described as a lone widow, ‘getting old with only one son . . . extremely poor with hardly the means of subsistence.’ This was according to JUANA NAVARO ALSBURY’s own sworn statement later in her petition to the State of Texas for compensation for her services rendered attending the sick and wounded at the Alamo, and her husband’s service at the Battle of San Jacinto and imprisonment later. Who were these NAVARRO sisters, how did they come to be in the Alamo at the time of the battle and what became of them afterward? JUANA and GERTRUDIS NAVARRO were the daughters of JOSE ANGEL NAVARRO and CONCEPCION CERVANTES NAVARRO. JOSE ANGEL NAVARRO was the brother of the famed Texas ‘Tejano’ patriot, JOSE ANTONIO NAVARRO. The NAVARRO girls’ father, JOSE ANGEL, remained loyal to the Mexican dictator, SANTA ANNA, and his centralist government, whereas his older brother, JOSE ANTONIO, supported STEPHEN F. AUSTIN and the Anglo-American colonists in their idea for a self-governing state. JOSE ANTONIO NAVARRO was a leader in the Texas political scene until his death at age 76 in 1871. The sister of JOSE ANGEL and JOSE ANTONIO, JOSEFA NAVARRO, had married another well known citizen of San Antonio, JUAN MARTIN VERAMENDI, who owned the locally famous ‘Veramendi Palace.’ The Veramendi Palace was the most luxurious and gracious home in the area at the time, along with the ‘Spanish Governor’s Palace’ located nearby. Both impressive dwellings had been built in the mid-to-late 1700’s and both housed governors of the area at the time, hence the customary term, ‘governor’s palace.’ Don JUAN MARTIN VERAMENDI had come into possession of his large stone house in 1809 and it served as his home as well as a ‘Governor’s Palace’ when he was Governor of Coahuila and Texas in 1832 and 1833. Its spacious halls and rooms were the scene of social gatherings and stately governmental functions and meetings during the various regimes of Spain and Mexico. This historic landmark building stood on one of the oldest streets in San Antonio, ‘Calle de Soledad’ between present day Houston and Commerce Streets. Surrounded in time by commercial growth, since it was at the center of the town that grew to be a large city, it eventually no longer served as a residence and over the years fell prey to a variety of commercial uses. It was finally abandoned altogether and deteriorated into an unsightly and unsafe ruin and ultimately was razed by the City in 1909. The NAVARRO girls were nieces therefore of two prominent and distinguished San Antonians: Don JOSE ANTONIO NAVARRO, their father’s brother, and Don JUAN MARTIN VERAMENDI, the husband of their aunt, JOSEFA NAVARRO, their father’s sister. Both families were a strong influence in the girls’ lives. The home life of the NAVARRO sisters was interrupted at an early age for them, though, by the break-up of their family. As a result of this family separation of their parents, their father took the two girls to live with him. Apparently feeling he could not care for them properly, he eventually sent the girls to live with other family members. JUANA became the godchild of her aunt, Dona JOSEFA NAVARRO VERAMENDI, and her husband, Don JUAN, and they took her to live with them. According to some accounts, both JUANA and GERTRUDIS went to live with the Veramendis, but others say GERTRUDIS went to live with another family member. In any case, the Veramendis ultimately adopted JUANA and raised her as the Veramendi Palace from a very young age, along with their own natural daughter, URSULA, and their other children and possibly GERTRUDIS, also. JUANA and her cousin, URSULA, considered themselves ‘sisters’, as did others apparently, for after URSULA VERAMENDI married JAMES BOWIE he addressed JUANA as ‘sister’. . . . [f]or all his toughness and roughness [Bowie] was said to have a smooth and gentle side as well, which perhaps was what made his marriage to URSULA VERAMENDI a success. He had charmed this reputedly beautiful young heiress even though her very Catholic and staunchly Mexican loyalist family had some misgivings about him initially. In a ceremony at San Antonio’s San Fernando Cathedral the two were married on April 25, 1931, and the marriage was apparently a very happy one which produced two little daughters in a very prompt order. And, thus, JIM BOWIE joined the Veramendi family at the ‘Palace’ and became a respected and influential citizen of San Antonio, also, and later, as fate would have it, he was to become the protector of JUANA and GERTRUDIS NAVARRO. But this happy idyll at the Veramendi Palace ended abruptly in 1833, when URSULA VERAMENDI BOWIE and her two infant daughters, along with her parents, died in a cholera epidemic in Monclova, Mexico, where they had gone on a visit. The death of URSULA and their two little girls left JIM BOWIE a bereft and grieving widower, according to all accounts, who never recovered from his tragic loss. His attachment to the NAVARRO sisters was genuine, no doubt, and his affection for them was returned by them in his final days at the Alamo especially. One year after her adopted sister URSULA’s marriage, a grown-up young JUANA NAVARRO, 20 years of age by now, also entered into matrimony. On May 1, 1832, JUANA NAVARRO and ALEJO PEREZ were married in the San Fernando church. Unfortunately, the marriage was cut short by an untimely death also, when after a brief time of less than three years, JUANA’s husband died and left her a young widow. The exact date of his death is unknown but is said to be some time in the latter part of 1834, before the birth of their son. ALEJO DE LA ENCARNACION. ALEJO, JR., as he always was known, was born on March 23, 1835 and baptized at San Fernando when he was eight days old. This child was in the Alamo later as an eleven-month-old toddler during the battle, as well as that other little toddler, fifteen-month-old ANGELINA DICKINSON, who became famous as the Babe of the Alamo. JUANA NAVARRO PEREZ remained a widow caring for her young son alone for almost a year after her husband’s death. Then in early January of 1836, about two months before the Battle of the Alamo, she married Dr. HORATIO ALEXANDER ALSBURY, an early Texas colonist. ALSBURY had come to Texas from Kentucky with several family members as part of STEPHEN F. AUSTIN’s ‘Old Three-Hundred’, the original settlers brought to this new frontier by Austin. HORATIO ALSBURY had been an active participant in the Texas independence movement since his arrival in the area. In fact, he had very recently been in Mexico and knew of the plans for SANTA ANNA and the Centralist forces to launch an attack on the settlers in Texas. Shortly before the arrival of SANTA ANNA’s army in San Antonio, ALSBURY had left town, either on a military scouting mission as some accounts say, or as others have said, he went east in search of a safer place to take his new wife and her baby to wait out the imminent probability of a battle in San Antonio. Expecting to return before SANTA ANNA’s army could reach the town, but fearing for the safety of his new family while he was away, ALSBURY had asked JIM BOWIE to see to the needs and protection of JUANA, her baby, and her sister, GERTRUDIS. GERTRUDIS was almost twewnty years of age and unmmaried, and HORATIO and JUANA had taken her into their home. Since BOWIE looked upon the two as his ‘sisters-in-law’, he no doubt agreed without hesitation to be responsible for them. There are differing accounts as to when and how JUANA, her baby and her sister, GERTRUDIS, got into the Alamo, as well as when they left, in fact. Some sources say they went in with BOWIE when he went in himself. Others say he sent for them later before actual hostilities began. One account even says ALSBURY took them in before he left town. In any case, they were established within the walls of the old mission for some time before the battle started. BOWIE was a sick man, though, and the NAVARRO sisters reportedly attempted to nurse him and care for him. It is speculated he feared he had a contagious illness and he had himself removed from the part of the old mission/fort occupied by JUANA and her baby and GERTRUDIS. The rooms the NAVARRO sister and little ALEJO occupied at the Alamo had been the Indian family apartments during the mission period. They were located on the west side of the compound, in the northwest corner, near the site where SAM MAVERICK, one of SAN ANToNIO’s leading citizens of the time, was to build his home later (now the corner of Houston and N. Alamo Streets). BOWIE was mo ed to the east side of the compound and quartered on the second floor of the ‘long barrack’, according to SUSANNA DICKINSON and accounts of some others later, in what was called the ‘hospital’. Differing accounts claim that he was quartered in the ‘low barracks’, along the south wall and that he died there. There is no positive proof though of the exact location of the place where JIM BOWIE was killed. Both second floor ‘hospital’ and the ‘low barracks’ are gone now, as well as the west wall apartments, but the lower floor of the ‘long barrack’ still stands and is part of the Alamo historical complex today. What actually happened to JUANA and GERTRUDIS and baby ALEJO while they were in the Alamo during the battle that raged around them? Researchers and writers over the years have paraphrased, condensed, re-worded and variously reported the actual eyewitness account given later to JOHN S. FORD by JUANA ALSBURY herself. FORD recorded it in what he called his ‘Memoirs’ which was published some 40 years or so after the battle. FORD’s account of this interview with JUANA ALSBURY is best told in his own words which are quoted here just as he recorded them from his meeting with her: ‘Juana, the daughter of Angel Navarro, and a niece of Col. Jose Antonio Navarro, when very young was adopted by Gov. Veramendi, who had married her father’s sister. Senorita Juana married a Mexican gentleman, Don Alejo Perez, by whom she had a son, Alejo, who is a resepectable citizen of San Antonio. The elder Perez died in 1834, and his widow married Dr. Horatio Alexander Alsbury early in 1836. It must be remembered that, Col. James Bowie married the daughter of Gov. Veramendi, consequently his wife was the cousin and the adopted sister of Mrs. Alsbury. This accounts for her being in his charge and in the Alamo. ‘When the news of Santa Anna’s approach, at the head of a considerable force, was verified in San Antonio, Dr. Alsbury proceeded to the Brazos river to procure means to remove his family, expecting to return before Santa Anna could reach the city. He failed to do so; and his wife went into the Alamo where her protector was, when the Mexican troops were near by. She was accompanied by her younger sister, Gertrudis. ‘Col. Bowie was very sick of typhoid fever. For that reason he thought it prudent to be removed from the part of the buildings occupied by Mrs. Alsbury. A couple of soldiers carried him away. On leaving he said; ‘Sister, do not be afraid. I leave you with Col. Travis, Col. Crockett, and other friends. They are gentlemen, and will treat you kindly.’ He had himself brought back two or three times to see and talk with her. Their last interview took place 3 or 4 days before the fall of the Alamo. She never saw him again, either alive or dead. ‘She says she does not know who nursed him after he left the quarters she occupied, and expresses no disbelief in the statement of Madam Candelaria. ‘There were people in the Alamo I did not see.’ ]Mrs. Alsbury and her sister were in a building not far from where the residence of Col. Sam Maverick was afterwards erected. It was considered quite a safe locality. They saw very little of the fighting. While the final struggle was progressing she peeped out, and saw the surging columns of Santa Anna assaulting the Alamo on every side, as she believed. She could hear the noise of the conflict – the roar of the artillery, the rattle of the small arms – the shouts of the combatants, the groans of the dying, and the moans of the wounded. The firing approximated where she was, and she realized the fact that, the brave Texans had been overwhelmed by numbers. She asked her sister to go to the door, and request the Mexican soldiers not to fire into the room, as it contained women only. Senorita Gertrudis opened the door, she was greeted in offensive language by the soldiers. Her shawl was torn from her shoulders, and she rushed back into the room. During this period Mrs. Alsbury was standing with her 1 year old son strained to her bosom, supposing he would be motherless soon. The soldiers then demanded of Senorita Gertrudis: ‘Your money and your husband.’ She replied: ‘I have neither money nor husband.’ About this time a sick man ran up to Mrs. Alsbury, and attempted to protect her. The soldiers bayoneted him at her side. She thinks his name was Mitchell. After this tragic event a young Mexican, hotly pursued by soldiers, seized her by the arm, and endeavored to keep her between himself and his assailants. His grasp was broken, and 4 or 5 bayonets plunged into his body, and nearly as many balls went through his lifeless corpse. The soldiers broke open her trunk and took her money and clothes, also the watches of Col. Travis and other officers. ‘A Mexican officer appeared on the scene. He excitedly inquired: ‘How did you come here?’ ‘What are you doing here any how?’ ‘Where is the entrance to the fort?’ He made her pass out of the room over a cannon standing nearby the door. He told her to remain there, and he would have her sent to President Santa Anna. Another officer came up, and asked: ‘What are you doing here?’ She replied, ‘An officer ordered us to remain here, and he would have us sent to the President.’ – ‘President! The devil. Don’t you see they are about to fire that cannon? Leave.’ They were moving when they heard a voice calling – ‘Sister.’ To my great relief Don Manuel Perez came to us. He said: ‘’ ‘Don’t you know your own brother-in-law?’ I answered: ‘I am so excited and distressed that I scarcely know anything.’ Don Manuel placed them in charge of a colored woman belonging to Col. Bowie, and the party reached the house of Don Angel Navarro in safety. ‘Mrs. Alsbury says to the best of her remembrance she heard firing at the Alamo till, 12 o’clock that day. . . . ‘She describes Colonel Bowie as a tall, well made gentleman, of a very serious countenance, of few words, always to the point, and a warm friend. In his family he was affectionate, kind, and so acted as to secure the love and confidence of all.’ The NAVARRO sisters maintained to the last that they were in the Alamo during the entire battle and to the very end, as quoted in the foregoing FORD ‘Memoirs’. Other accounts, however, claim they left two days before the fall of the Alamo such as those cited by Dr. AMELIA WILLIAMS, in her thesis, ‘A Critical Study of the Alamo’, written in 1931. This was perhaps the first, and for many years only, in-depth study of the battle of the Alamo. Under the section entitled, ‘The Survivors of the Massacre’, Dr. WILLIAMS reports: ‘But there is another story about these NAVARRO women. Frank Templeton in his ‘Margaret Ballentine, or the Fall of the Alamo’, 177: Mrs. James McKeever to Governor James Hogg, July 25, 1803 (State Library): also the application of LOUISE ALSBURY for membership in the Daughters of the Texas Republic (sic), (Records of the Daughters of the Texas Republic) (sic), all say that the NAVARRO women left the Alamo on the night of March 4, under flag of truce from SANTA ANNA, at the request of their father, ANGEL NAVARRO. It should be remembered that JUANA and GERTRUDIS’ father, ANGEL NAVARRO, was the member of the NAVARRO family who, after all, had remained steadfastly loyal to SANTA ANNA and his Centralist Government. It is quite conceivable such a request could have been made by ANGEL NAVARRO and granted by SANTA ANNA, and that the NAVARRO women could have left under a flag of truce before the final battle. As for testimonials of other survivors regarding the presence of the NAVARRO women at the time of the fall of the Alamo, SUSANNA DICKINSON claimed that Mrs. ALSBURY and her sister were not there at the end of the battle; that, in fact, ‘the two women were traitors who had escaped to the enemy and betrayed our situation about two days before the assault.’ Dr. WILLIAMS adds a further testimonial on this from SUSANNA DICKINSON’s granddaughter, Susan Sterling: ‘Mrs. DICKINSON (Morphis, Historyof Texas, 175) says that on ‘the night of the 4th of March a Mexican women deserted us, and going over to the enemy informed them of our inferior numbers.’ Dr. WILLIAMS also says: ‘Mrs. Susan Sterling, the granddaughter of Mrs. Dickinson, told me that this Mexican women was Mrs. HORACE ALSBURY, and that her grandmother (SUSANNA DICKINSON), would never stay in the same house with Ms. ALSBURY – not even for an hour – in the post revolutionary days, because of this desertion. Mrs. Sterling lived in Austin, Texas, until August, 1929, when she died at the age of 83.’ Dr. WILLIAMS had this and other commentaries first hand from the granddaughter and those of the grandson of SUSANNA DICKINSON as she stated in her thesis: ‘Mr. A.D. Griffith, a grandson of Mrs. Dickinson (sic), now lives in Austin. (As of date of thesis, June, 1931.) Until August, 1929, his sister, Mrs. Susan Sterling, lived with him. She is now dead. It has been my privilege to visit these old people – both past eighty – and to hear from them the stories their grandmother was wont to tell them concerning the Alamo disaster. Mrs. Sterling spent most of her young life at her grandmother’s home and could re-tell many of the stories that she heard from Mrs. Dickenson (sic).’ On the other hand, ENRIQUE ESPARZA, who was an eight-year-old boy there at the time, told in an interview years later that he remembered seeing them there when the fighting was over and the handful of survivors were gathered together and taken to the MUSQUIZ home to appear before General SANTA ANNA. ESPARZA recalled that the NAVARRO women were the first to be interviewed. Some people have held, however, that an eight-year-old child’s observations reported years later, might be questionable. In any case, JUANA NAVARRO ALSBURY, her baby, ALEJO PEREZ, and her sister, GERTRUDIS NAVARRO, survived the battle somehow, somewhere, and all three of them lived for many long years afterward, no matter when they left nor under what circumstances. “The bloody massacre of the Battle of the Alamo left those survivors who had witnessed it with terrifying and horrible memories that would last a lifetime. When the turmoil of the aftermath was beginning to subside somewhat, JUANA’s husband finally returned to San Antonio after what must have seemed an eternity to her. She had no seen him since the battle began, when he had left supposedly to find a safe haven for her. He had been unable to return to her before the Battle of the Alamo began, but where had he been since it fell over two months ago? Surely this was a time when she must have felt she needed him most. According to JUANA’s testimony later, he had been at the Battle of San Jacinto, that final conflict of the Texas Revolution in which General SANTA ANNA was captured by the Texans and Mexico was forced to concede defeat. This battle of April 21, 1836, was the decisive encounter which resulted in the establishment of the new Republic of Texas. Thus, HORATIO ALSBURY had been a participant in the Texas independence movement from beginning to end according to his claims. Upon ALSBURY’s return to San Antonio, he and JUANA settled into an apparently stable life on a NAVARRO ranch along Calaveras Creek a few miles southeast of San Antonio. JUANA and each of her immediate family members had inherited a share of money, cattle, and ranch land from their father’s estate upon his death. JUANA’s ranch land became a permanent home for her and her husband and, according to family accounts, it was her final resting place as well, when she died and was buried there many years later. There is no grave nor marker to be found there for her, however. HORATIO’s younger brother, ‘Young Perry’ ALSBURY, followed in his brother’s footsteps and moved to San Antonio after the Battle of San Jacinto, also. He, too, married a local girl, MARY RODRIGUEZ, and they settled on a ranch nearby. They lived all their long lives there and were buried in the family cemetery on the ranch. A memorial state historical marker was placed on their gravesites in 1936, the Texas Centennial year which celebrated one hundred years of Texas Independence. The contributions of both of the ALSBURY brothers helped to make that possible. It was during the years of settled home life on the ranch for JUANA and HORATIO ALSBURY, beginning in 1836, that HORATIO began to establish himself in the community. In 1841, he served as City Clerk of San Fernando de Bejar, the village that was the forerunner of the city of San Antonio. The ALSBURY’s life on their ranch continued without unusual event until the following year of 1842, when Dr. ALSBURY, along with a number of other men, was captured while resisting the invasion of San Antonio by the Mexican Army under command of General Adrian Woll. This was not an all out attempt on the part of Mexico to re-conquer Texas, but a show of force. SANTA ANNA was President of Mexico again, and he refused to relinquish what he felt was Mexico’s inherent right of sovereignty. The captured men were all taken to Perote Castle Prison in Vera Cruz, Mexico, and JUANA is said to have followed them in an attempt to get her husband out of prison. She was unable to accomplish this impossible feat, of course, and she reportedly stopped in Mexico at some point along the way to await him. He was released with several other prisoners after more than 18 months and they returned to San Antonio. Life resumed then for the ALSBURYs and continued as before until 1846 when HORATIO left again. He was bound for Mexico once more, not as a prisoner nor a Texas Scout, but as a member of the U.S. Army. Texas by now had joined the United States as a state of the Union and Dr. ALSBURY accompanied the American troops across the Rio Grande River in the War Between the States and Mexico. When her husband left this time, although she did not realize it, JUANA told him goodbye for the last time. She never saw HORATIO ALEXANDER ALSBURY again. He was reported to have been killed somewhere in northern Mexico between Camargo and Saltillo sometime in 1846, 1847, or 1848. His remains were never found. Life for JUANA after the death of her husband seemed to travel on a steadily downhill course. Her subsequent testimonials requesting help from the State of Texas for subsistence paint a rather bleak and destitute picture. Her petitions for compensation, dated February 15th, 1854, March 3rd, 1855, Marcch 29th, 1855, and November 1st, 1857, identify her as the wife or widow of Dr. HORATIO A. ALSBURY, a woman now in great need. The petition of November 1st, 1857 describes especially well events regarding her life, her husband’s contributions and her own destitute situation at the time of the petition. Parts of it are quoted below: ‘ . . . JUANA NAVARRO ALSBURY . . . was in the Alamo at the time of its fall. She was then the wife of Dr. (Horatio) Alexander Alsbury . . . during the siege of the Alamo she was ever ready to render and did render all the services she could toward nursing and attending upon the sick and wounded . . . That all the property she had to wit her clothing, money, and jewels were seized and taken by the enemy – that subsequent to that time her husband the said Dr. Alsbury was taken prisoner . . . and confined in the Castle of Perote in Mexico over 18 months . . . he accompanied the American Army across the Rio Grande during the war between the United States and Mexico, and in the year 1846, was killed by the Mexicans somewhere between Camargo and Saltillo . . . that she is now getting old with only one son. That she is extremely poor with hardly the means of subsistence – she therefore prays the honorable Legislature will . . . allow her some compensation for her losses . . . in this her time of necessity. JUANA NAVARRO ALSBURY. The elaborately styled penmanship on this and at least one of the other petitions includes her name at the end as though it might be her signature. On closer inspection, however, it is apparent that the hand that wrote the name at the end, wrote the entire document, because the name as it appears in the early part of the petition, naming her as the petitioner, is written precisely like the one at the end. Moreover, the handwriting is different in the two petitions, including the ‘signature’ name at the end of each. Furthermore, the petition dated March 3rd 1855 has ‘her X mark’ at the end in the middle of her name on the signature line . . . Further indication still of her inability to write is suggested in the will of her father wherein all witnesses to the will, including her sister, GERTRUDIS, are listed as signers of the document in several places. In one instance her husband, Dr. HORATIO ALEXANDER ALSBURY, is shown to have represented her by this statement: ‘ . . . ALEJANDRO ALSBURY (as he was known in the Spanish speaking community) received the inheritance descending to JUANA, his wife, under power of attorney dated January 5, 1837, which is presented for his purpose.’ Although JUANA NAVARRO grew up in what would be considered luxury in a frontier situation of the time and place and came from apparently literate families, it would appear her training had not included the basic skills of reading and writing, if these petitions and documents are any indication. While young ladies of the day were well schooled in social graces, oftentimes they were not trained in the basics of literacy. ‘Very few of the Mexican ladies could write but they dressed nicely and were graceful and gracious of manner.’ It was not unusual to find women everywhere at that time who could neither read nor write. It was especially true, however, on the far-flung frontiers in places where there were no schools of any kind, not even convents and very few home tutors. . . . [T]he best known of the women who survived the Alamo and the one most often quoted and called on to testify, SUSANNA DICKINSON, never learned to read or write, not even her own name. A’neat X’ was the only signature (mark) ever recorded for her. In any case, regardless of hwo may have signed the petitions requesting aid for JUANA NAVARRO ALSBURY apparently the State finally heard her pleas and awarded compensation to her in 1857. Dr. AMELIA WILLIAMS reports in her thesis: ‘Memorial No. 73, File 1, shows that in 1857 Mrs. PEREZ (ALSBURY) applied for and received a pension for her services and her loss of money and jewels at the Alamo.’ The San Antonio Light newspaper in its story on her at the time of her death, also says: ‘During the last few years of her life Mrs. PEREZ drew a special pension from the state o $100.00 per quarter.’ JUANA NAVARRO PEREZ ALSBURY, whose baptism is listed on the San Fernando Church Baptismal Records as December 28, 1812 (bith not recorded) died on July 23, 1888 at 78 years of age at her ranch home near San Antonio (Rancho de la Laguna Redonda).. The handwritten record in Spanish of the death of JUANA NAVARRO Y ALSBURY . . . is on a fragile fragment of paper from the personal ledger of her son, ALEJO PEREZ, JR. It was written by him at the time of her death in 1888 when he was 53 years old. The recording of the death, written in this careful, old style penmanship, was found, with other notations, in a beautiful, old, chamois-suede ledger book which had been kept over a period of years by ALEJO PEREZ, JR., who was most definitely literate. The ledger was actually not merely a ‘ledger’; it was something of a diary, for he had recorded not only certain of his financial accounts in it, but accounts of momentous events in his life as well, such as the account of his mother’s death. It even included some poems written by one of his daughters. The book was discovered in an old marble top dresser at the ranch many years after ALEJO’s death. It was given to one of his grandsons, GEORGE PEREZ, when some of the furnishings there were being divided among descendants upon the death of the last family member to occupy the old ranch house. Today, the fragile heirloom treasure, ALEJO’s recording of his mother’s death, is framed and hangs on the wall of JUANA’s great great granddaughter, DOROTHY PEREZ . . . . At the beginning of this story of the NAVARRO sisters, it was said that some accounts state that JUANA ALSBURY had a third husband, whose name was said to be PEREZ, also. The earliest reference . . . found to this later marriage was in the San Antonio Light newspaper article published at the time of her death in 1888. The last paragraph of the article reads: ‘ . . . After Mrs. ALSBURY’s escape from the Alamo, Dr. Alsbury died and later she again married, and her husband’s name was also PEREZ.’ The next reference . . . found was in the AMELIA WILLIAMS thesis on the Alamo, written in 1931, in which she makes the statement: ‘After the death of Dr. ALSBURY . . . his wife married again, another PEREZ.’ This claim of JUANA’s marriage again to another PEREZ is frequently said in accounts written since then right up to the present day. As was stated earlier, Dr. WILLIAMS’ thesis was the first, most comprehensive in-depth study that had been made on the Battle of the Alamo at the time of its writing in 1931, and oftentimes what is written today is based on it, even though more recent research has revealed new information. However, . . . no actual documentation for this marriage has been found in Dr. Williams’ paper – just the statement as it appears above. Nor has there been found any documentation elsewhere in Bexar County Records. A search of the Bexar County Archives and the San Antonio Catholic Chancery File of the San Fernando Marriage Records revealed no listing of such a marriage. Some of these early records are handwritten in old Spanish style and are very difficult to read. So the author of this book states she consulted with a local descendant known to have done extensive research on the family genealogy, and her response was as follows; ‘In her Nov. 1, 1857 petition for the Texas Legislature, JUANA implied that she was still a widow. . . . She asked for compensation based on the loss of her husband, (HORACE) ALEXANDER ALSBURY, in service to Texas. I have no information about her reported marriage to another PEREZ (cousin of her first husband) in later life.’ The only early references to this alleged re-marriage found were those in the 1888 newspaper article printed at the time of her death, and Dr. WILLIAMS’ thesis written 43 years later in 1931. Is it possible Dr. WILLIAMS based her statement on a newspaper article that may have been inaccurate, and writers have been repeating it ever since? Even JUANA’s own son, ALEJO, recorded her name as ‘JUANA NAVARRO Y ALSBURY’ in his handwritten recording of her death in 1888, with no mention of the name PEREZ. If there is no documentation that JUANA ALSBURY did re-marry, then the statement should cease to be made. For one thing, it raises a possible question for some as to whether she was actually entitled to compensation if she was no longer a widow. . . . In the absence of documentation to the contrary, it would seem that the record should let her and her name as JUANA NAVARRO Y ALSBURY rest in peace. . . . There can be no doubt . . . that JUANA NAVARRO ALSBURY was in the Alamo for at least part of the time of the battle, if not all of it, and that she lived a long and sometimes exciting and colorful life with many ups and downs. She had two apparently happy, although rather brief marriages, each of which left her a widow at a young age. She had only one child, but his two marriages provided her with many grandchildren and great grandchildren to fill her last days. She may have been reduced to a frugal existence in her later years, but, she had known better days and she had some very rich memories. JUANA’s son, ALEJO PEREZ, JR., that ‘other babe of the Alamo’, had a number of business interests and a variety of occupations during his lifetime, including that of San Antonio policeman, the position in which he was serving at the time of his mother’s death. And, like the rest of the family, he, too, lived for many years. He died October 19, 1918, at the age of 83, and is buried in San Fernando Cemetery No. 1 in San Antonio. He was married twice and had 4 children by his first wife and 7 by the second wife. With many grandchildren from both families, he left a very large family heritage of memories. And what about her younger sister who had survived the nightmare of the battle with her? GERTRUDIS had continued to live with JUANA and HORATIO for four years after the battle when in 1840 at the age of 24 she reportedly became engaged to be married to a recent newcomer from the United States named GEORGE WASHINGTON CAYCE. Sad to say, though, the young man was killed quite unexpectedly in a skirmish called the ‘Council House Fight’, which took place at the Council House, between a group of Comanche Indians and some citizens of San Antonio. Actually, CAYCE was not intentionally involved in the disturbance. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. MARY ADAMS MAVERICK, wife of one of San Antonio’s early Texas patriots, SAM MAVERICK, records the incident in her Memoirs: ‘Young .G.W. CAYCE had called on us that morning, bringing an introductory letter from his father to Mr. MAVERICK, and placing some papers in his charge. He was a very pleasant and handsome young man and it was reported came to marry GERTRUDES (sic) NAVARRO, Mrs. Dr. ALSBURY’s (sic) sister. He left our house when I did, I going to Mrs. Higgenbotham’s, and he going to the Council Hall. He stood in front of the Court House, and was shot and instantly killed at the beginning of the fight, and fell by the side of Captain Caldwell. The brother of this young man afterward told me he had left home with premonition of his death being near.’ The following year on July 26, 1841, GERTRUDIS NAVARRO was married to MIGUEL CANTU, and apparently found happiness in a union that lasted a long lifetime for both and produced seven children. GERTRUDIS NAVARRO CANTU, like her sister, had a long life, but considerably less eventful. She died in 1895 at the age of 79 years. She and her husband, MIGUEL CANTU, are said to have been buried on their ranch land, also, but there are no known gravesites there for them either They had lived all their married life on their ranch surrounded by their many children and grandchildren. This ranch was located along the Salado Creek, near the community of Elmendorf, a few miles southeast of San Antonio. There are a great many descendants of these two sisters of the illustrious NAVARRO family living in San Antonio and vicinity today, and they continue to add to the story of the lives of JUANA NAVARRO PEREZ ALSBURY and GERTRUDIS NAVARRO CANTU, two of the women named as ‘Survivors of the Battle of the Alamo.’
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 21:26:02 +0000