DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, friends. Off the South Texas coast, there's a long, wind-scoured ribbon of land stretching out into the Gulf, and it carries a name with a story behind it. Padre Island.
And the man behind that name is Padre Jose Nicolas Balli, born somewhere in the seventeen-seventies, gone from this world in 1829. Now, the Balli family didn't just appear out of nowhere. They came from Spain, way back in 1569, and by the time Padre Nicolas entered the picture, they had become large landowners deep in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
Roots that old, land that vast, you get a sense of what kind of family we're talking about. The kind that thinks in generations. So when Padre Balli set his eyes on that long island sitting just off the coast, it wasn't a passing fancy.
In 1800, he went straight to the top. He applied to King Charles IV of Spain himself, asking for eleven and a half leagues of land on that island. Eleven and a half leagues.
Let that settle in your mind a moment. And he got it. By 1804, he had started the island's first settlement, a place called Rancho Santa Cruz.
First souls to put down roots on that stretch of sand and salt grass. But Padre Balli was more than a landowner and a settler. He served as collector of finances for all the churches in the Rio Grande Valley.
Every one of them. And he founded the first mission in what is now Cameron County. His ministry, the marker tells us, was a great influence on the lives of early South Texas settlers.
A priest, a rancher, a man who petitioned a king and built something from nothing on a barrier island. Today that island still carries his name. Padre Island.
Not a bad way to be remembered.
What the marker says
Padre Island, off the South Texas coast, is named for Padre Jose Nicolas Balli (177?-1829), whose family migrated from Spain in 1569 and became large landowners in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. In 1800 Balli applied to King Charles IV of Spain for 11 1/2 leagues of land on the island, and in 1804 started its first settlement, Rancho Santa Cruz. Padre Balli served as collector of finances for all the churches in the Rio Grande Valley and founded the first mission in present Cameron County. Padre Balli's ministry was a great influence on the lives of early South Texas settlers.