Sunday, August 13, 2000

Balli roots run deep along coast

Padre Jose Nicol s Ball¡ died in 1829, but neither death nor passage of time has loosened the roots of the family legacy that remains an integral part of South Texas. The land the secular Catholic priest once owned continues to bear his name - Padre Island.
   After its exploration by Spanish explorers, the island flirted with numerous names, including La Isla Blanca, Isla de San Carlos de los Malaguitas and Isla del Brazo de Santiago. But the one that stuck was a shortened version of "the padre's island," what descendants of settlers of colonial New Spain commonly called the island hugging the southern Texas coast.
   As the son of prominent frontera settlers and landowners, Padre Ball¡ enjoyed from birth a life among the elite in Nuevo Santander, the area extending from northern Mexico to the Nueces River, which was named for Santander, Spain, the birthplace of the area's colonizer, Jose de Escand¢n.
   Building an empire
   Ball¡, born in Reynosa, Mexico, was the oldest son of Jose Mar¡a and Rosa Mar¡a Hinojosa de Ball¡. Rosa Mar¡a represented the sixth generation of her family in the New World, noted Armando C. Alonzo, associate professor of history at Texas A&M University and author of "Tejano Legacy: Rancheros and Settlers in South Texas, 1734-1900."
   Ball¡'s father was a captain in the militia. As prominent figures in the military and governmental history of Nuevo Santander, Ball¡'s parents were able to acquire from the Spanish crown town grants on both sides of the Rio Grande, Alonzo said. Much later, Ball¡'s widowed mother would grow that wealth to more than a million acres of South Texas, land extending over present-day Kenedy, Hidalgo, Starr, Willacy and Cameron counties, according to historical data researched by Dr. Clotilde P. Garcia for "The New Handbook of Texas."
   Long service
   Ball¡ is believed to have been ordained in 1790 or 1791, according to Garcia's research that resulted in a historical marker at the entrance of Padre Ball¡ County Park on the island.
   As Ball¡ traveled throughout the villas and haciendas that dotted both sides of the Rio Grande, Ball¡ performed countless baptisms, marriages and funerals, said Ball¡ descendant Herminia Balli de Chavana, author of "The History of the Prestigious Ball¡ Family." Records from Reynosa, Mexico, show that Ball¡ officiated at more than 500 funerals in the region.
   Economic importance
   Not bound by vows of poverty, this secular priest came to inherit and apply for vast tracts of land in South Texas and on the southern side of the Rio Grande. Additionally, Ball¡ was designated by the Catholic church as collector of the diezmos or tithes, which earned him commissions.
   Tithes are the payment of one-tenth of the annual produce of one's land or of one's income, paid to support the church.
   "One of the reasons the Ball¡s became important economically is because Father Ball¡ was collector of the tithes," Alonzo said. "The Spanish government and the church were interdependent. When the church created a new diocese in Nuevo Santander, settlers were required to give 10 percent of their new wealth (that being cattle) to the church."
   Ball¡ hired herders and shepherds to collect all these herds, Alonzo said, which by law Ball¡ was required to sell, and in so doing earned a commission.
   Applying for clear title
   "To guarantee that her son would faithfully carry out his duties, his mother put up as a kind of bond 10,000 head of cattle and her La Feria land grant," according to documents archived in Monterrey, Mexico, Alonzo said.
   In 1800, Ball¡ applied for clear title of Padre Island, property that had been granted to his grandfather, Nicol s Ball¡ Perez, by Spain's King Carlos III. Padre Ball¡ later included his nephew and business partner, Juan Jose Ball¡, as co-applicant of that request and ultimately was granted the length of barrier island on the Texas coast stretching from present-day Nueces to Cameron counties.
   Passing on the legacy
   Padre Ball¡, first surveyor of the island, established El Rancho Santa Cruz de Buena Vista there, appointing his nephew as mayordomo or foreman of his cattle ranch. They also raised large herds of horses, sheep and mules. Ball¡ also established a mission on the island to Christianize the Karankawa Indians, founded the first school for children in Matamoros, and with his mother's help also founded the first mission on the La Feria grant located in Cameron County.
   After Mexico won its independence from Spain, Ball¡ again asked for confirmation of his island title. It was granted December 1829. Ball¡, however, had died eight months before of apoplexy or stroke.
   "He was sick for one or two days before dying of a ruptured cerebral artery," de Chavana said.
   Ball¡ is buried near Matamoros. He willed his property to his nephew and other family members.