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Description of a dwelling in San Patricio, which could likely apply to anywhere in South Texas. Certainly log cabins were out of the question.

By the time McMullen came to the capital of his empresa on the Nueces it had been named San Patricio de Hibernia (St. Patrick of Ireland). Furthermore, McGloin had overseen the throwing up of jacales for temporary shelters as well as a few picket cabins. Among them was his own, a prototype of the rest. His cabin stood facing Constitution Square on the block south of it. Eliza, his wife, and his two children, John J., age 4, and Mary Ann, an infant, had to accommodate themselves to a picket cabin which had a palmetto roof, a dirt floor, and a clay chimney.

The latter took the place of a kitchen stove in winter. In the summer cooking was done over an open fire outside. Water was carried from the river both for drinking and other purposes until wells were dug. There was little light in the cabin. Usually there were no windows, and, at most, two doors were cut through the upright poles. There was no lumber for window blinds to keep out the cold when a norther came whistling in; besides, a cabin with no windows was a protection against the Indians.

The furniture was crude, handmade, and make-shift. But it was home in a wilderness while they awaited their land grants and until the time came when building materials would be available.

And a 19th Century painting by Gentilz of a Tejano dwelling near the missions in San Antonio, seems typical of the type...



The way these things were built is a trench was dug along the wall lines and rows of small tree trunks and relatively straight branches set in them. The spaces between this lumber then chinked with mud.

About the best that could be done in the absence of any substantial timber, but it should be recalled that winters down here are at best brief, most of the time summer heat being a greater problem.

Birdwatcher