Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/San Antonio (city)

SAN ANTONIO, a city and county-seat of Bexar co., Tex.; on the San Pedro and San Antonio rivers, and on the Southern Pacific, the International and Great Northern, the San Antonio and Gulf Shore, and the San Antonio and Aransas Pass, and other railroads; 80 miles S. W. of Austin. Here are the headquarters of the United States Military Department of Texas, a United States Military Reservation covering 200 acres, St. Louis College (R. C.), St. Mary's College (R. C.), San Antonio Academy, Ursuline Academy, West Texas Military Academy, a collegiate institute, high school, street railroad and electric light plants, court house, United States Government building, a number of National and State banks, and daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals. In many lines, especially in manufacturing, San Antonio is the distributing point for the entire State. San Antonio has 34 beautiful parks and plazas scattered about the city, comprising 423 acres and valued at more than $2,000,000. Notable among these is Brackenridge Park with an area of about 200 acres, fifteen minutes from the center of the city; and San Pedro with an area of about 40 acres, ten minutes from the center of the city. San Antonio is the seat of Protestant Episcopal and Roman Catholic bishops. There were in 1919, 37 public and 25 private schools, with 24,491 enrolled in the public schools. It has an extensive trade in peanuts, livestock, hides, lumber, cotton, and wool, and manufactories of flour, ice, cars, brick and tile, shoes, etc., and an assessed property valuation of over $388,000,000. San Antonio had in 1919, 28 banks—National, State and private. Their combined capital was more than $8,000,000; their deposits average about $50,000,000 and their loans over $36,000,000. In 1714 the Spanish constructed Fort San Fernando on the right bank of the San Pedro, and four years later the Alamo mission was founded, but afterward both were removed to the site of San Antonio. During the Spanish and Mexican regimes San Antonio was the capital of Texas. In 1836 the massacre of the Alamo occurred here, and in 1861 the Union forces under General Twiggs were forced to capitulate. In 1873 San Antonio received a city charter. Pop. (1910) 96,614; (1920) 161,379.