DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place — and this one's got layers worth peeling back. The full name is Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Mission, Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, and it stood right here along the Guadalupe River, at or near what we now call New Braunfels. Established in 1756.
But to understand why it was here at all, you've got to go back a little further — and a little further northeast. About a hundred miles northeast, to be exact. That's where Mission San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas had been standing since 1746.
Now San Francisco Xavier had what you might charitably call a difficult run. Attacks from outside. Disease from within.
And a grinding, festering strife between the friars and the soldiers tasked with protecting them — strife that didn't just simmer, it boiled over. In 1752, it climaxed in the murder of a friar. Let that land for a second.
A friar. Murdered. Most of the personnel and Indian converts — the neophytes — fled after that.
And yet, somehow, the mission limped along until 1755. After that, the whole operation picked up and moved to the Guadalupe River. Why?
To gather its scattered Mayeye Indians, who had made their position plain: they were not going to enter Valero Mission — the Alamo — down in San Antonio. They weren't going. So the mission came to them.
Like San Francisco Xavier before it, Guadalupe was small and it knew it. Two friars ran things, with a citizen guard kept deliberately lean — the idea being to avoid the exact kind of soldier-friar friction that had already gotten somebody killed. The site itself had real promise: five springs, fertile fields, timber, meadows, and the river close at hand.
By January of 1757, the inhabitants numbered four Spanish families and 41 Indians — 27 of them baptized. That's the whole census. That's everyone.
For a mission, that's a modest congregation. And the church apparently knew it — Guadalupe was never described as a strong mission. It held on through 1757, into early 1758.
And then, in March of 1758, the church withdrew its staff. The reason? Increasingly dangerous raids by Comanches and other northern tribes.
The Guadalupe mission had lasted barely two years. San Francisco Xavier, its troubled parent, hadn't fared much better. Like the other three San Xavier missions, both of them were short-lived — born out of hardship, moved in hope, and ended by a frontier that had run out of patience.
The five springs still flow. The river's still there. But the mission — the two friars, the four families, the 27 baptized souls — all of that is just the marker now.
What the marker says
Established on 1756 in the Guadalupe River at or near present New Braunfels as an extension of the ill-fated Mission San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas (1746-1755). Earlier located 100 miles northeast, San Francisco Xavier had been shaken by attacks, disease, and strife between friars and soldiers, which had climaxed in the murder of a friar in 1752. Although most of the personnel and Indian converts (neophytes) fled, the mission continued until 1755. After that time it moved to the Guadalupe River to gather its scattered Mayeye Indians, who refused to enter Valero Mission (the Alamo) in San Antonio. Like the other three San Xavier missions, San Francisco Xavier was short-lived. Good features at the site included five springs, fertile fields, timber, meadows and the nearby river. Two friars ran the small mission, with a citizen guard, so as to avoid friction. Four Spanish families and 41 Indians (27 of them baptized) comprised the inhabitants of the mission as of January, 1757. Never a strong mission, Guadalupe continued only until March, 1758. At this time the church withdrew its staff because of increasingly dangerous raids by Comanches and other northern tribes.