Juan Bautista Elguézabal

Juan Bautista Elguézabal (1741–1805) was the temporary ruler of the Spanish province of Texas in 1797, and the Governor of Texas from 1800 to 1805. He also temporarily ruled the province of Louisiana in 1803.

Early Years

Juan Bautista Elguézabal was born in 1741, though the place of his birth is unknown. In 1795, he was appointed assistant inspector of a Presidio in the Mexican state of Coahuila. A year later in 1796, he was appointed assistant to the Governor of Texas, Manuel Muñoz, who had fallen ill and was waiting for approval of his retirement from the king of Spain. Elguézabal became acting governor in August 1797. At this time, he made a detailed inspection into La Bahía ("The Bay"), a region generally corresponding to the Texas coast on the Gulf of Mexico.

Government of Texas

In July 27, 1799, Elguézabal assumed the position of Governor of Texas in the absence of originally appointed governor José Irigoyen, who had failed to accept the position. In 1803, Elguézabal was also appointed acting governor of Louisiana, after this territory was sold to the United States. Many citizens of Louisiana sent Elguézabal petitions requesting permission to settle in Texas, partially causing an influx of immigration to the province. Runaway slaves also contributed to this population increase, as Spain declared that any slave who crossed the Sabine River into Texas would automatically be freed. Most of these escaped slaves joined American Indian tribes, but some settled in the East Texas forests. However, it is not to be assumed that slavery was completely banned from the province; for example, certain French and Spanish slaveholders who moved to Texas were permitted to retain their slaves.

Elguézabal developed a more liberal policy than the province had held up to that time, improving the living conditions of its inhabitants (previously, the province had a high poverty rate that affected most of its population). He granted the Alabama-Coushatta and Choctaw Native American tribes permission to settle east of the Trinity River, under the autonomy that those tribes had acquired during the tenure of Manuel Muñoz, .

Relations with US

The Spanish Commandant General of the Interior Provinces, Nemesio Salcedo, who served under Elguézabal, sent him a letter requesting that Elguézabal order his officials to establish good relations with United States, but to refrain from communication with American officials. Concerned about the threat that the Americans posed to the relatively weak local Spanish forces, Salcedo ordered Ugarte, Commandant of the District of Natchitoches, to inform him about the number of US troops stationed in the district, the existence of militias or regulars in these troops, and the caliber of twenty artillery pieces that the US troops had in the city.

In August 1800, Pedro de Nava ordered Elguézabal to secretly imprison horse-trader and freebooter Philip Nolan, who was suspected of being an American spy. Commandant José Vidal (in his charge as Commandant of Concordia, near Natchez), further indicated to Elguézabal that Nolan was leading an armed group of thirty or forty men. However, Vidal was unsuccessful in his attempt to convince the Supreme Court of Mississippi to deny Nolan a passport to Texas.

First schools in Texas and the end of his term

Between 1803 and 1804, Salcedo wrote another letter to Elguézabal asking to build primary education schools and send teachers to instruct the "people of the frontier" in basic literacy (reading and writing). Elguézabal ordered the construction of several schools (the first of Texas's schools were established during the Elguézabal's administration) and sent teachers to the province. The teachers monthly obtained one-fourth of a peso for every boy who was enrolled in school (as girls were not permitted to enroll). Schools were established in San Antonio (then capital of the province of Texas) and the presidio of La Bahia del Espiritu Santo by 1804. No schools were built in Nacogdoches until 1805, as the population was very dispersed and the most young boys were employed as ranch hands. It was during this time that Jose Francisco Ruiz became in first schoolmaster in San Antonio.

In the absence of Irigoyen, Elguézabal continued to serve as governor of Texas past his initial end-term date in 1800. He died in office on October 5,1805 in San Antonio.

Elguézabal had four children, one of whom was Juan José Elguézabal, the governor of Mexican Texas from 1834 to 1835.