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The 2011 Cloud Family Gathering.
San Antonio, Texas, July 15, 16 & 17.
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| Please join us for our 2011 Cloud Family Gathering in San Antonio. Click here for details and Registration Form. |
Named for St. Anthony of Padova, the area now known as San Antonio de Bexar was a native American settlement located on a river. Spanish explorers came upon the settlement on the feast day of St. Anthony in 1691 and gave it his name. Beginning in 1719, the first non-native settlers moved into Texas as the king of Spain had families from the Canary Islands recruited to populate the area, with some settling in San Antonio.
The Spanish Conquest of Mexico, begun in 1519, ended in 1821 with Mexico's independence from Spain. The monarchy was replaced with a constitution resembling that of the United States that was created 50 years earlier. Political strife began early in its history. In 1834, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna overthrew the new president, rejected the new constitution and made himself dictator. Many provinces in Mexico revolted against Santa Anna, including the citizens North of the Rio Grande in Texas.
The Texas militia, a small, ill-equipped army, was no match for the superior Mexican army. Among the citizen soldiers were many of the new settlers who had emigrated from the United States, their own revolution in 1776 fresh in their minds and their love of freedom inspired them to defend it from the cruel oppression of the new dictator.
Two famous battles occurred in San Antonio following the rejection of the Mexican constitution -- the Siege of Bexar in December of 1835 in which a small band of Texas militia routed Santa Anna's brother-in-law, General Cos, from the city and two months later, on February 23, 1836, General Santa Anna and 5,000 troops laid siege to the the 100 or so Texans garrisoned at the Spanish mission beginning what became known as the
Battle of the Alamo. Reinforcements, including a young lawyer from Tennessee named Daniel Cloud, raised the Texan presence to almost 200, but they were no match for the overwhelming odds and, on March 6, 1836, the Alamo fell with all but two of its defenders killed or
executed.
Fortunately for the Texans, Santa Anna considered their army no threat and focused instead on his own lavish lifestyle and entertainment, resulting in his defeat at San Jacinto April 21, 1836.
The citizens in the other provinces were violently crushed by the Mexican armies but the citizens of the Mexican state of Texas had won their Independence from Mexico and the Republic of Texas was formed. |
| Daniel William Cloud wrote an historic and stirring
letter before he reached the Alamo and it was donated by the Cloud Family Association to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and can be seen at the Alamo. |
| Jeremiah Cloud was the first known Cloud to settle in Texas. He was born about 1784 in Twiggs county, Georgia, moved to Alabama and then to Texas, settling in Austin's colony in 1837. Though Jeremiah's parents are unknown, the Cloud DNA Project proves he was related to the Alamo soldier Daniel Cloud. |
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| THE CLOUD FAMILY ASSOCIATION, Inc. |
| The CLOUD FAMILY ASSOCIATION (CFA) is a registered non-profit corporation devoted to the collection and preservation of information about the various branches of the Cloud Family, past and present. The files of the Association are organized to provide a clearing house for Cloud information and a major goal is to encourage people to share their family information with the Association and with others interested in the family. The association publishes the CLOUD FAMILY JOURNAL (ISSN 0883-0940) quarterly to make this information, along with data from family sources and public documents, available to interested persons. |
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| The CLOUD FAMILY ASSOCIATION -- Making friends, finding lost cousins, preserving our heritage. |
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