1718 San Antonio
Founding Families and Descendants 
"Los Primeros"

You may qualify to join the 1718 SAFFD as a descendant from our list of expeditions and their participants.

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FEATURED ANCESTOR

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Diego Ramon (1641-1724

"As commandant of the presidio of San Juan Bautista from its establishment in 1703 until his death, Diego Ramón played a key role in the development of Spanish Texas and the founding of missions in both Texas and Coahuila (TSHA)."

 His first entry into what is now Texas probably occurred in 1688, when he accompanied De León on the expedition to arrest the Frenchman Jean Jarry in the future Kinney County. After De León's death in 1691, Ramón served as governor ad interim of Coahuila. Following the ineffectual Texas expedition of Domingo Terán de los Ríos in 1691–92, he reported to the viceroy on the plight of the missionaries in eastern Texas.  

In 1699 Ramón led the founding expedition of Mission San Francisco Xavier, forty miles northwest of Monclova.

On January 1, 1700, Ramón, now sargento mayor, officiated in the removal of San Juan Bautista Mission from the Río de Sabinas on the Coahuila-Nuevo León border to the site of present-day Guerrero, Coahuila, five miles from the Rio Grande. His association with this settlement, which ultimately included two other missions, endured until his death twenty-four years later. In March 1701, on recommendation of the bishop of Guadalajara, Captain Ramón was placed in command of a "flying company" charged with defending the Rio Grande missions. Two years later, the company was given permanent station in Presidio de San Juan Bautista, adjacent to San Juan Bautista Mission, with Ramón in command. In 1706, when smallpox swept through the native population, both in the mission settlement and in the montes, the captain and several of his soldiers accompanied a missionary priest into the Texas wilds to baptize dying Indians.

In 1714 he received the French commercial agent Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, who had journeyed from Mobile seeking an entry to trade with the Spaniards, and sent him on to Mexico City for interrogation. In 1715, following an Indian uprising, Ramón crossed the Rio Grande with Fray Francisco Ruiz to return the rebellious natives to the missions.

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Conjecturally, Querétaro has been given as Diego Ramon (1641) birthplace, but that is by no means certain. In the baptismal record of the parish of Santiago de Querétaro appears the name of a daughter, Juana, born to Diego Ramón and María de los Ríos. Record of the couple's marriage does not appear.

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Many of Ramón's descendants also were involved in historic events. In 1716 Manuela Sánchez Navarro (see ST. DENIS, MANUELA SÁNCHEZ NAVARRO DE), the granddaughter of Ramón's wife, Feliciana Camacho y Botello, was wed to St. Denis. She later joined her husband at the French post at Natchitoches, Louisiana. Also in 1716, Diego Ramón saw his son Domingo off for eastern Texas at the head of a new mission-founding expedition, accompanied by St. Denis as commissary and the younger Diego Ramón (Domingo's brother) as alferez. Domingo was to command the presidio of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores de los Tejas on the Neches River, then Nuestra Señora de Loreto de la Bahía Presidio at its first site. He officiated also in the founding of Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo Missionqv, near the presidio at La Bahía.

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The second Diego Ramón, born in 1677, returned to Coahuila and ultimately came into possession of his father's hacienda, Santa Mónica. A third Diego Ramón, Domingo's son, succeeded to command of La Bahía upon his father's (Domingo's) death. He afterward became lieutenant of San Antonio de Béxar Presidio and temporarily commanded San Xavier de Horcasitas Presidio on the San Gabriel River. He was assigned to serve as alferez at San Luis de las Amarillas Presidio (San Sabá) Texas State Historical