is 102 Years Old.
San Antonio Express newspaper, Oct. 18, 1903, Sunday.
NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS. OCT. 17.--In a neat little cabin near where the clear waters of the Guadalupe roll onward to the Mexican Gulf, and not more than a quarter of an hour's ride out of New Braunfels, lives Andres Gonzales, a typical descendant of the Motezumas and a veteran of many wars, who never tires of recounting to the stranger who stops to chat with him, the stories of the days of the long ago, when Texas was still a province of Mexico, when Santa Anna, the Napoleon of the West raised the black flag over the Alamo and the funeral pyre of brave Crockett and Travis, and when Houston forever checked the tyrant's invasion on the marshy banks of the San Jacinto.
Four or five times a year Gonzales, usually accompanied by his faithful wife, comes to the courthouse to get his pension papers looked after and get his money for his warrant, for he draws a pension for services rendered in the Mexican war as a member of the First Texas Cavalry.
One day as he was coming out of the courthouse, this correspondent met him at the steps and having a kodak, asked him to stop for a moment while he took his picture. He does not know his age but one day said he was 200 years old, but, on questioning him closely, he stated that his father had told him, whoever asked his age, to say that he was born in the "year one," no doubt meaning in 1801, which makes him 102 years old. So today Andres Gonzales can look back over a century of the most stirring period in the world's history. At the time of his birth Mexico was still ruled by Spanish Kings, and Louisiana had not yet been sold by Napoleon to the United States and Thomas Jefferson was waging war on the pirates of the Mediterranean.
Gonzales was born in Morelos, near the city of Mexico, and, as a soldier, came to Texas with the army of invasion in 1833. For some reason, which he does not explain, he left the Mexican army and remained in San Antonio, where he was when Santa Anna stormed the Alamo, and it was here that on day he was brought before the Mexican tyrant and severely cursed and abused by Santa Anna for having left the army and for living in San Antonio. He does not explain how it came about, but he claims to have been with Houston's men at the battle of San Jacinto.
Like many other Mexican Gonzales has a deep hatred of the memory of Santa Anna and it was probably because of this that he joined the Americans in their war for independence. During the days of the Republic, when Texas had thrown off the Mexican yoke, Gonzales lived in San Antonio, where he remained until the breaking out of the Mexican war, when he again fought side by side with his American comrades, enlisting in the First Texas Cavalry, in a company commanded by a Captain Daniels. And once again in the Civil war he shouldered his musket and fought in the defense of his adopted country.
His pension provides for the few wants of himself and his faithful wife. Yet, though he is more than 100 years old, and his time scarred body is bent with age and hardships, and the coal black hair of his youth is now silvery gray, his little black eyes still sparkle with the memories of the past and a week ago he was cutting and raking weeds in the yard of Mr. Bench, on whose place he lives.
A few months more, or a few years, at the most, Andres Gonzales will
have answered his last roll call, his last battle will have been fought
and the bugle will sound "reveille" from the other shore, where he will
go to join the brave heroes who fell at the Alamo and San Jacinto sixty-seven
years ago. He has lived long and the sands of his life are nearly run.
He has marched under the flags of Mexico, of Texas and of the United States,
and now, with his faithful wife, he is bivouacking on the banks of the
Guadalupe to make his last fight, and, when he has gone down in death,
may he find a brave soldier's welcome from his comrades on the "other shore"
who have gone before.
