Bexar County was created in 1836
and formed as an Original
County. Bexar County was named for San Antonio de Béjar, the capital of Mexican Texas and present-day San Antonio, Texas, in turn named for Saint Anthony and the Duke of Béjar, brother of the Spanish viceroy, who had died in 1686 defending Budapest from the Ottoman Empire. The County Seat is San Antonio. The Official County website is located at http://www.co.bexar.tx.us. The Bexar County courthouse was built in 1892 in Renaissance Revival design of red granite and designed by famed architect J. Reily Gordon. It was constructed at a cost of $600,000 and expanded in 1928.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Bexar County Clerk has Court Records from 1837, Land Records from 1837, Probate Records from 1837, Marriage Records from 1837 and Birth/Death Records from 1903 is located at 100
Dolorosa, Suite 108,
San Antonio, TX 78205-3083;
(210) 220-2011 . The County Clerk's Office is the record keeper of the county. The county records include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, brand registrations, DD214s (military discharges), land / real estate / property records, probate and civil filings.
Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Texas Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Texas Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Vital Records,1100 West 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756, Please allow up to approximately 6-8 weeks for processing of all type of certificates when ordered through the mail. They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: Birth records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present. For births that occurred within the past 75 years, copies can be requested only by the immediate family of the person whose name is on the birth certificate.
Cost: The cost of a birth record is $22.00. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $22.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Death Certificates: Death records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present.
For deaths that occurred in the past 25 years, copies can be requested only by immediate family members of the deceased.
Cost: The cost of a certified death certificate is $20.00 for the first copy and $3.00 for each additional copy issued at the same time for the same certificate. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $20.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Marriage & Divorce Certificates: Marriage Verifications from Jan 1966 and Divorce Verifications from Jan 1968. Certified copies of marriage licenses or divorce decrees are only available from the county clerk (marriage) or district clerk (divorce) in the county or district in which the event occurred. Marriage verification or divorce verification letters can now be ordered ELECTRONICALLY
Cost: $20 - Fee is for verification only.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Order In Person: The certificates may be ordered by coming into this office. If you want the copy the same day, our hours for same day service are 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Monday – Friday. The Texas Vital Statistics Office in Austin is located at 1100 W. 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756.
Order By Mail: Mail a check or money order (no cash) payable to the "Texas Vital Records " along with the necessary information to the following address: Texas Vital Records, Department of State Health Services, PO Box 12040,
Austin TX 78711-2040. Please include return address on envelope and application form.
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Research Death records In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of historical Texas newspaper articles about deaths. Search for local articles about an old family friend that died many years ago or a celebrity that committed suicide. Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information about the deceased.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29 - Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If you're unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu. These records can be searched by father's first and last names, mother's first and maiden names, year, county, and city. The certificates include the child and parents' full names, residence, occupations, age, time and date of the birth, and the name of the physician attending the birth.
Texas Death Certificates, 1890-1976 - These records are searchable by first and last name of the deceased, year, county, and city. A certificate may include the decedent's date, place, and cause of death; age; date of birth; last residence; and marital status. If known, it will also include occupation, birth place, parents' names, and place of burial. Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu.
Click Here to Search Texas Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Bexar County, Texas are 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. The Texas State Library holds microfilm editions for all of Texas' federal censuses. Although the 1850, 1860, and part of the 1870 mortality schedules have been published, all the original mortality schedules are at the Texas State Library and on microfilm The 1830 territorial census of Miller County, Arkansas, enumerates an area that is in today's Texas boundaries. The remaining 1890 population schedules which exist for Texas include: Ellis County (Justice Precinct 6, Mountain Peak, and Ovilla Precinct); Hood County (Precinct 5); Rusk County (No. 6 and Justice Precinct No. 7); Trinity County (town of Trinity and Justice Precinct 2); and Kaufman County (Kaufman). Although Greer County in present-day Oklahoma functioned as part of Texas between 1886 and 1896, the 1890 census for this county was enumerated under Oklahoma Territory.
Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Bexar County, Texas are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms
Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Arkansas and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps.
Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Maps. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Texas Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Texas (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Texas tax records constitute one of the most complete sets of available records generated at the county level (by the Commissioners Court) because these documents are maintained by the state. These lists may only include approximately sixty percent of eligible males over the age of twenty-one. Persons exempted from taxes included native Americans, "idiots," "incompetents," and those exempted because of age. This final category of exemptions varied over time. Years without an older age exemption were 1840 and 1862-70. Between 1841-44 exemptions began at forty-five years; in 1845 and from 1850-61 the upward age was set at fifty years. In 1837, 1848, and 1849 the limit was established as fifty-five, and in 1846-7, and 1871 the upward limit was set at sixty years.
Texas Ad Valorem (poll, personal, and real property) tax records for 1836 through 1976 are available in microfilm at the Texas State Library from the date of respective county organization; these are arranged by county and date and are somewhat alphabetized within each division. Microfilm copies are housed in the Genealogy Section. Tax lists for the various counties from creation to 1901 may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Tax records through 1901-1947 are readily accessible, but not on interlibrary loan. Those for 1948 through 1976 can be obtained upon request.
Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Texas State Library and Archives Commission, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927 Holdings under the auspices of the Texas State Library are divided. Most important for genealogical research are the Texas State Archives with its Local Records Department, the Records Management Division, and the Information Services Division, which includes a Genealogy Section and a Reference Department.
The Genealogy Section maintains vertical ties that contain notes, clippings, pamphlets, and correspondence on Texas families. These files may be accessed in person, by phone (512-463-5463, forty-five minute limit), or through correspondence.
Texas Historical Commision The Texas Historical Commission (THC) is the state agency for historic preservation. THC staff consults with citizens and organizations to preserve Texas' architectural, archeological and cultural landmarks. The agency is recognized nationally for its preservation programs.
Texas Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Texas Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
During Texas's colonization period Roman Catholics were the most numerous, but early citizens included those representing other religious faiths such as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Christian or Disciples of Christ.
Many cemetery records have been collected and transcribed, including the largest of which is multi-volumes compilation by the DAR and two volumes for Peters Colonists and descendants. The DAR collection, also microfilmed, is available at the Texas State Library and through the FHL.
Some Texas county historical and genealogical societies have published local cemetery and/funeral home records. These are normally available for purchase through the respective society. Two references can help determine which cemeteries have been recorded: Kim Parsons', A Reference to Texas Cemetery Records (Humble, Tex.: by author, 1988), arranged by county; and Sharry Crofford-Gould's, Texas Cemetery Inscriptions: A Source Index (San Antonio, Tex.: Limited Editions, 1977).
Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Texas obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Texas newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Texas.
Click Here to Search Texas Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Bexar County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Bexar County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Bexar County is located in an area that has long been the site of human habitation. Archeological artifacts from the Clovis culture recovered in the region suggest that hunting and gathering peoples established themselves in the region more than 10,000 years ago. During historic times, the area was occupied by the Coahuiltecans, Tonkawas, and Lipan Apaches.
The first Europeans to explore the region came with an expedition in 1691 led by Domingo Terán de los Ríos and Fray Damián Massanet,q who evidently reached the San Antonio River near where San Juan Capistrano Mission was later founded. Nearby they found a group of Payayas living on the riverbank. The Indians, as Massanet recorded in his diary, called the place Yanaguana; he, however, renamed the site San Antonio de Padua to celebrate the memorial day of St. Anthony, June 13. The next group of Spanish explorers, an expedition led by two Franciscans, fathers Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares and Isidro Félix de Espinosa, and a military officer, Pedro de Aguirre,q did not reach the area until April 1709. Much impressed by the setting and the availability of water, they noted that the area might make a promising site for future settlement. In 1714 Louis Juchereau de St. Denis crossed the region on his way to San Juan Bautista. Espinosa again visited the site in 1716 on his way to East Texas with the expedition of Domingo Ramón and this time recommended San Pedro Springs as a mission site. Near that spot, in May 1718, Martín de Alarcón led the expedition that founded San Antonio de Valero Mission and San Antonio de Béxar (or Béjar) Presidio, named for Viceroy Balthasar Manuel de Zúñiga y Guzmán Sotomayor y Sarmiento, second son of the duke of Bexar. By the end of the winter of 1718 numerous Indians of the Jamrame, Payaya, and Pamaya groups had joined the mission. In 1720 Fray Antonio Margil de Jesús founded San José y San Miguel de Aguayo Mission a short distance to the south. Another mission, San Francisco Xavier de Naxara, was established in 1722, but proved unsuccessful and was merged with San Antonio de Valero in 1726. In 1724 the San Antonio de Valero mission compound, which had originally been located at the site of the present-day Chapel of Miracles south of San Pedro Springs, was moved to Alamo Plaza. In 1731, after the removal of the missions from East Texas, three additional missions�Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña, San Francisco de la Espada, and San Juan Capistrano�were founded along the San Antonio River.
During the 1720s the Spanish population of the area was about 200, including fifty-three soldiers and their families and four civilians with their families. On March 9, 1731, fifty-five Canary Islanders arrived at Bexar, and the villa of San Fernando de Béxar became the first municipality in the Spanish province of Texas. The five missions, together with the presidio and the villa of San Fernando, constituted the most important Spanish concentration in Texas. By the mid-1730s the total population of the area was some 900, including 300 Spanish and 600 Indian converts. An epidemic in 1738-39 devastated the missions, killing perhaps three-fourths of the Indian population. At Mission San Antonio de Valero alone, only 182 of 837 Indians who had been baptized survived. By 1740, however, the missions' populations began to recover. The number of converts at the five missions reached more than 500, as many of the indigenous Coahuilatecan peoples living in the region fled to them as a refuge from the Apaches and Comanches.
The missions developed as self-supporting communities, each ringed with farmland irrigated by a comprehensive system of acequias, or irrigation ditches. Crops included grain, cotton, flax, beans, sugarcane, and vegetables. Each of the missions also maintained sizable herds of cattle, sheep, and goats on extensive ranchlands located around Bexar. Governor Manuel M. de Salcedo described Mission Concepción's ranch in 1809 as comprising some thirty-eight square miles and extending east and northeast from the mission to Cibolo Creek. An inventory in 1756 recorded that the Concepción ranch had 700 cattle, 1,800 sheep, and large herds of goats and horses.
Both the missions and the villa of Bexar were subject to sporadic attacks of Apaches and Comanches; nearly a quarter of the Spanish who died between 1718 and 1731 were reportedly victims of Apache attacks. A truce was signed with the Apaches in August 1749, but occasional attacks by Comanches and Apaches continued well into the nineteenth century.
In 1772 the government offices of Spanish Texas were moved from Los Adaes to Bexar, and some of the East Texas settlers also moved. Nonetheless, Bexar remained a small frontier outpost, as Father Juan A. Morfi described in a report of the late 1770s, with "fifty-nine houses of stone and mud, seventy-nine of wood, all poorly built without a preconceived plan. The whole town," he continued, "resembles a poor village rather than the capital of a province."
After the secularization of the missions in 1793-94, they gradually became satellite civilian communities under the authority of the town of Bexar. The mission lands were distributed to the few remaining Indians and the increasing number of Spanish settlers; most of the better land nearest the settled areas was controlled by the town's elite, which was made up of the descendants of the original Canary Islanders and presidial soldiers. The complex network of irrigation systems that had been operated by the missions was partially abandoned, and by 1815 the amount of irrigated farmland had declined markedly.
Despite the downturn brought on by the secularization of the Spanish missions, San Antonio de Béxar continued to be an overwhelmingly agricultural community. Subsistence farming was the rule. The largest number of cultivators worked small family plots, though many farms were also worked by tenant farmers or day laborers. The elite landowners increased the size of their holdings after the secularization of the missions, and some of the largest ranchers exported horses and cattle to Coahuila or Louisiana.
During the late colonial period, Bexar continued to serve as the capital of the province of Texas as well as the main shipping point for supplies headed for Nacogdoches and La Bahía. Between 1811 and 1813 the city was also center of revolutionary activity against Spanish rule. In 1811 a former militia captain, Juan Bautista de Las Casas (see casas revolt) following the lead of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico, mounted an insurrection in Bexar that quickly spread throughout the province of Texas. Las Casas's band of followers, which included the poorer soldiers and civilians of the lower social stratum who resented the rule of the Spanish elite, scored early successes, arresting the governor and his military staff and seizing the property of the most ardent royalists. On March 1, 1811, however, some of the conservative military officers and clergy supported by the isleños (aristocratic decedents of the original Canary Island settlers), staged a counterrevolution. Las Casas was captured in Chihuahua and executed, and his head was salted and shipped in a box to Bexar for display on Military Plaza in an attempt to dissuade others from taking up his cause.
After Las Casas's death, the leadership of the insurrectionists fell to Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara, who led an army of Mexican revolutionaries and sympathetic Americans from Louisiana that seized San Antonio in the spring of 1813 and proclaimed Texas an independent state (see Gutiérrez-Magee expedition). But in August, royalist forces commanded by José Joaquín Arredondo succeeded in routing the insurrectionists and restoring order. Arredondo's victory was followed by a period of reprisals that included confiscation, detentions, and executions; in San Antonio alone, loyalists shot 327 supporters of the rebellion.
In the wake of the rebellion, the population of Bexar and the surrounding region fell markedly and did not begin to grow again until the end of the decade. By 1820, however, Bexar had some 2,000 inhabitants, with slightly more females (1,021) than males (973); several hundred more lived on ranches in the outlying countryside. During the 1830s the population again increased slightly, although the number of inhabitants in Bexar declined as more town dwellers moved out to adjoining farms and ranches.
Soon after the first Anglo-American colonists came to Texas in 1821, San Antonio became the western outpost of settlement. In 1824 Texas and Coahuila were united into one state with the capital at Saltillo; a Department of Bexar was created with a political chief to have authority over the Texas portion of the state. During the late 1820s and early 1830s increasing numbers of American settlers began moving to San Antonio, though the city remained preponderantly Mexican at the beginning of the Texas Revolution.
In late October 1835, Texas volunteers laid siege to the city, which was garrisoned by the Mexican army under Martín Perfecto de Cos. On December 10, after fierce hand-to-hand fighting, it was occupied by Texan forces (see bexar, siege of). San Antonio was retaken by government forces commanded by Antonio López de Santa Anna during the battle of the Alamo on March 6 of the following year. After the subsequent defeat of Santa Anna's army in the battle of San Jacinto, the city was reoccupied by Texan forces, but the area, claimed by both sides, continued to be fought over. In March 1842, six years after Texas independence, Mexican general Rafael Vásquez briefly occupied San Antonio, and in September of the same year, Adrián Woll led another Mexican invasion force that seized the city.
Because of the uncertainty posed by the frequent invasions, San Antonio and the surrounding area were largely depopulated. Many settlers fled during the Runaway Scrape of 1836 or during subsequent attacks, and did not return in large numbers until after Texas joined the Union. As late as 1844, San Antonio had only some 1,000 residents, nine-tenths of whom were of Mexican descent.
The first Protestant churches in what became Bexar County were not organized until 1844, when two circuit riders, Methodist John Wesley DeVilbiss and Presbyterian John McCullough formed congregations. In 1847 the Presbyterians built a small adobe church, and the Methodists constructed their own building in 1852. Trinity Mission of the Episcopal Church was founded in 1850, an Evangelical Lutheran church was organized in 1857, and the Baptists organized their first church in 1861.
The newly formed Bexar County covered much of the western edge of settlement in Texas. During the late Mexican period, Texas had been divided into four departments, with the department of Bexar stretching from the Rio Grande to the Panhandle and as far west as El Paso. With the winning of Texas independence, the departments became counties, and on December 20, 1836, Bexar County was established, with San Antonio as county seat. Since 1860, when the partitioning of Bexar County began, 128 counties have been carved from the original county, leaving the present county at 1,248 square miles.
Despite the steady growth of the population in the late 1840s, fueled by large numbers of immigrants from the Old South and from Germany, Bexar County was still a sparsely populated region during the early years of statehood. In 1850 the county had a total population of 5,633, 3,488 of whom lived in San Antonio. The economy, as during the Spanish and Mexican periods, was still based on ranching and subsistence agriculture. Livestock accounted for the most important agricultural product in the county's early years. The census of 1850 reported 5,023 cattle, 1,025 oxen, 3,241 milk cows, 2,715 swine, 633 horses, and 7,007 sheep. Corn constituted the most important crop, followed by oats, beans, and other vegetables. The amount of farmland actually in use was very small: less than 5 percent of the total land in farms (5,062 of 135,182 acres) had been tilled, and as late as 1858 three-fourths of the county's terrain was still prairie. Most of the farms were also small; on the eve of the Civil War only one farm in the county was larger than 1,000 acres, and most were smaller than fifty.
The main source of revenue for the county was trade carried on by team trains between San Antonio and Mexico and New Orleans. A number of German and Anglo immigrants opened mercantile establishments in the city, but there was little in the way of industry. In 1860 the county had only twenty-eight manufacturing establishments, with 135 employees.
In contrast to many other areas of Texas, slaves played only a minor role in the Bexar County economy. In 1850 there were only 419 African Americans living in the county, thirty of whom were free. By 1860 the number of slaves had grown to 1,395, or slightly less than 10 percent of the county's total population. Most of the county's 294 slaveholders owned five or fewer slaves; only two owned more than forty.
Bexar County, with its large German population, was a center for antislavery sentiment. Nevertheless, county residents voted for secession 827 to 709 (54 percent for, 46 percent against). On February 16, 1861, Gen. David E. Twiggs, commander of the federal Department of Texas, which was headquartered in San Antonio, surrendered all United States forces, arms, and equipment to a committee of local secessionists backed by a large force of Texas Rangers under Major Benjamin McCulloch. Although Bexar County escaped the destruction that devastated other parts of the South, the war years were difficult for the county's citizens, who were forced to deal with the lack of markets and wild fluctuations in Confederate currency, as well as with concern for those on the battlefield. With many of the men away fighting, the county and the surrounding region experienced an upsurge of cattle rustling and other crimes, and a committee of vigilantes organized "necktie parties" for bandits, cattle thieves, and Union sympathizers.
After the war San Antonio was occupied by Union soldiers, but the county was spared much of the political violence that consumed other parts of Texas. The war and its aftermath, however, had a serious effect on the county's economy. Land prices fell significantly�by as much as half�and most of the county's businesses suffered. Many of the county's farms also fell idle. The amount of improved farmland declined by more than 60 percent between 1860 and 1870, from 13,697 to 5,546 acres. With little tax money coming in, San Antonio and county officials were unable to fund many services. Public sanitation suffered, and as a result the county had a serious cholera outbreak in 1866.
Except for San Antonio, which continued to be a commercial and military center, the county remained scantily settled and undeveloped. Most of the population continued to be concentrated in the San Antonio River valley, with only a few small settlements in the northern, eastern, and western parts of the county. Economic recovery did not begin until the late 1860s and early 1870s with the start of the great cattle drives. Because Bexar County was located at the northern apex of the diamond-shaped area that was the original Texas cattle kingdom, it became an increasingly important center for the ranching industry. By 1870, the number of beef cattle in the county reached 55,325, nearly double the figure for 1860. A sharp increase in the price of wool and the large amount of free range west and south of the city also spurred the development of sheep ranching, particularly in the decade between 1870 and 1880.
The economic recovery, however, found its most important stimulus with the arrival of the first railroad, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, which reached San Antonio in February 1877. The completion of the rail link with the coast made the shipment of local products far easier and helped to fuel a rapid growth in population. The number of inhabitants in the county, which had grown by less than 2,000 between 1860 and 1870, nearly doubled over the next decade, increasing from 16,043 in 1870 to 30,470 in 1880. Many of the new residents were recent immigrants from Europe and Mexico. Of the total population in 1880, 7,912 were foreign-born, with the largest numbers coming from Mexico (3,498), Germany (2,621), Ireland (471), England (334), and France (293). After the Civil War the county's black population also grew dramatically as many freed slaves settled in and around San Antonio. By 1880 the number of African-American inhabitants had reached 3,867, nearly three times what it had been in 1860.
In 1881 a second railroad, the International-Great Northern, reached the city from the northeast. The completion of the two railroads not only brought new prosperity, but helped to change the physical face of the county. Before the 1870s most visitors had been struck by the fact that San Antonio and environs, despite relatively large numbers of English, Irish, and Germans,q still more resembled a Mexican community than an American one. The influx of new settlers and manufactured building products gradually transformed the city and county, altering its appearance to more closely resemble that of other communities in Texas. The changing character of Bexar was perhaps most tellingly revealed in 1890, when for the first time the number of the county's inhabitants born in Germany (4,039) actually outnumbered those who had been born in Mexico (3,561).
The construction of the railroads also stimulated the establishment or greatly spurred the growth of numerous new communities, particularly along their route, including Macdona, Von Ormy, Cassin, Atascosa, Thelma, Beckman, Luxello, Converse, and Kirby. But despite the growth of the new communities, in 1890 the overwhelming majority of the county's inhabitants, 37,673 of 49,266, lived in San Antonio.
The 1880s also saw many new industries. By 1887 San Antonio listed among its businesses three bookbinderies, four breweries, three carriage factories, four ice factories, three tanneries, one wool-scouring plant, and an iron foundry. Between 1880 and 1890 employees in manufactures in the county grew from 362 to 2,518. After the turn of the century the manufacturing sector continued to show impressive growth. By 1920 the county had 328 factories employing 6,860 persons.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29