DUANE
Duane's take
The marker's the word, and here's how I tell it — the story of Captain Domingo Ramon, as recorded on the official Texas Historical Commission marker in Nacogdoches County. Now, before we get to the man himself, you need to know where he came from. Domingo Ramon was the son of Captain Diego Ramon — commandant of the Presidio San Juan Bautista, also known as the Presidio del Rio Grande.
That's the kind of family where soldiering wasn't a career so much as a inheritance. And in 1715, the Spanish authorities looked at young Domingo and decided he was exactly the man they needed for a job nobody had successfully pulled off yet. The assignment: establish a presidio and four missions deep in the province of Tejas — what we'd call East Texas today.
Now, this wasn't Spain's first attempt at putting down permanent roots out there. This was the second. Which means somebody had already tried and come up short.
That detail alone ought to tell you something about what Domingo Ramon was walking into. The expedition that followed bore his name — the Ramon-Espinosa expedition. And Spain had a very particular reason for pushing into that frontier.
French traders were making inroads, and the Spanish authorities wanted that stopped. Illicit French trade was creeping toward the Texas frontier, and a presidio full of soldiers tends to have a way of discouraging commerce that isn't supposed to be happening. When Ramon reached the Neches River in 1716, he didn't waste any time.
Within two weeks of arrival, he had established the first site of the Presidio Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Tejas and four missions. Four missions in two weeks. That is a man working with urgency.
And he wasn't done — he went on to establish two more missions after that initial settlement, bringing the total to six. Now here's a thing worth sitting with. The Hasinai Caddo nation — the Tejas people, the ones this whole province was named for — they tolerated the Spanish presence.
More than tolerated. They cooperated with Spanish authorities to repel the French. That's not a small thing.
That cooperation was the ground everything else was built on. So there's Domingo Ramon, presidio established, six missions running, French trade routes under pressure. Looked like Spain had finally gotten its foothold in East Texas.
And then came 1719. French Lieutenant Philippe Blondel, commandant of Fort Saint Jean Baptiste, attacked San Miguel — the easternmost of Ramon's missions. Now, the marker is careful to call it a minor attack.
Minor. But here's the thing about a minor attack on an isolated frontier outpost six missions deep in East Texas with no quick reinforcements coming: minor is in the eye of the beholder. The members of the presidio and all six missions abandoned East Texas entirely and headed for the safety of San Antonio de Bexar.
Domingo Ramon never returned to Presidio Dolores. He continued his career at the Presidio Nuestra Senora de Loreto, located on La Bahia del Espiritu Santo — Matagorda Bay. His father, Captain Diego Ramon, died in 1724.
Domingo himself had died the year before, in 1723. But here's where the story takes on a longer shadow. The Ramon-Espinosa expedition — that second attempt, the one nobody thought much of at the time — facilitated the establishment of El Camino Real de los Tejas.
Arguably the most important route for travel in Texas during the entire Spanish colonial period. Domingo Ramon never went back to Presidio Dolores. But the road his expedition helped open?
That one kept going long after he was gone.
What the marker says
Captain Domingo Ramon (d. 1723) was the son of Captain Diego Ramon (d. 1724), the commandant of the Presidio San Juan Bautista (Presidio del Rio Grande). In 1715, the Spanish authorities appointed Domingo Ramon to establish a presidio and four missions in Tejas (present day East Texas). The subsequent entrada, called the Ramon-Espinosa expedition, was the second attempt by Spain to form a permanent settlement in the province of Tejas. Spanish authorities intended the presidio to prevent the expansion of illicit French trade into the Texas frontier. When Ramon reached the Neches River in 1716, he established the first site of the Presidio Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Tejas and four missions within two weeks of arrival. He then established two more missions after initial settlement. The native inhabitants of the region, the Hasinai Caddo (Tejas) nation, tolerated the presence of the presidio and cooperated with Spanish authorities to repel the French. Ramon's tenure at Presidio Dolores came to an end when its easternmost mission, San Miguel, was attacked in 1719 by French Lt. Philippe Blondel, commandant of Fort Saint Jean Baptiste. Despite the minor nature of the attack, members of the presidio and its six missions abandoned East Texas for the safety of San Antonio de Bexar. Ramon never returned to Presidio Dolores. He continued his career at the Presidio Nuestra Senora de Loreto located on La Bahia del Espiritu Santo (Matagorda Bay). The Ramon-Espinosa expedition facilitated the establishment of El Camino Real de los Tejas, arguably the most important route for travel in Texas during the Spanish colonial period. (2015)