Green Vann
Cherokee Texas Ranger

We know that Green Van lived at Santa Rosa (Muzquiz, Coahuila Mexico) from 1842-1854. (Vann’s own “Depredations on the Frontiers of Texas” testimony before the U.S. Commissioners in 1873, “Depredations on the Frontiers of Texas, Deposition No. 543, House Executive Document 257, 43rd Congress, I Session, Texas State Library Archives, Austin) Together with the Mexican document which indicates that “Grin Van” was among those Santa Rosa Valley residents who suffered losses in the `tormenta” there in 1843.

(Luis Alberto Guajardo papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University).

Dorothy Ostrom Worrell says that Green Vann was born in Arkansas, and “came to Eagle Pass on June 25, 1855,” but gives family tradition as offering his age at that time as “39 years old.” This has to be in error.

(Dorothy Ostrom Worrell, “Green Van Builder ...” Eagle Pass News Guide June 2, 1949.)

This presents a problem: Vann did not marry Martina Guerra of Santa Rosa (Muzquiz) until March 22, 1851, which would have made him age 20 when he married. The parochial records of Santa Rosa de Lima Church in Santa Rosa (Melchor Muzquiz, Mexico) show Martina Guerra and Jose Manuel Ban getting married there on March 22, 1851.

(Batch number M601727, source call number 0606509.)

The same parochial archives also confirm the baptism on December 26 1848 of Jose Manuel Ban, adult, whose parents are listed as Santiago Ban and Maria Salome.

(Batch number C601723, source call number 0605502.)

Furthermore, however, the 1860 United States Census of Maverick County lists the age of the (Cherokee) carpenter, born in Arkansas as 29 years, his wife 31 year old Martina, with his nine month old son (Jose) Agapito Ban.

(United States Census of Maverick County, 1860.)

On the same subject, ten years later, the 1870 U.S. Census lists a 39 year old Manuel Van (carpenter Arkansas) with 41 year old Martina, 12 year old Agapito, nine year old Juan Jose, and six month old Matilda comprising the Vann household in Maverick County, Texas.

(United States Census of Maverick County, 1870.)

In other words, the family tradition is off. And the internet search conducted March 14, 2002 by Vicky Haguen of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department also lists a new wrinkle in the Van family fabric, that of the baptism of one Jose de Jesus Ban, June 9, 1850, the son of Maria Andrea Ban at Santa Rosa de Lima, Melchor Muzquiz, Coahuila Mexico. No father appears in the listing.

(Batch number C601723, Source call number 0605502.)

J. A. (Jose Agapito) Van was one of those Eagle Pass infants baptized at Paso del Aguila by the visiting Mexican Presibtero.

The “Cuaderno Provisional” of the Baptismal Register of Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church verify J.A. Van’s baptism in September of 1859 at Eagle Pass by the Rev. Eulalio Trevino y Mata “Presbitero”, who secured permission from Galveston Bishop Jean Marie Odin to perform baptisms and marriages on this side of the river.

(Baptismal Records Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church.)

If Green Van was 29 in 1860, and 39 in 1870 as the U.S. Census indicates, he was a more credible 20 years old when he marred Martina Guerra, 22, at Santa Rosa de Lima parish church March 22, 1851, his year of birth figured as 1831. This was just over two years after his baptism there.

Could he have been Santiago Van’s son? That question has now been documented in the affirmative by the Santa Rosa de Lima baptismal record showing 17 year old Jose Manuel’s christening date of December 26, 1848 his parents Santiago Ban and Maria Salome, the parish priest Juai Nepomuceno de Ayala.

The Padron de Extranjeros document for the Valle de Santa Rosa a Muzquiz (1844) puts Santiago Van’s age at 38. In 1844 we can thus calculate Green Van’s age as 13 years old, with an older sister (?) Maria Matilde, 15 Years old. The carpenter Santiago Van, says the Padron, had four children and a wife, (“Salome Hernandez”) who was also a foreigner, “who have lived in this valley for three years.”

(Padron de Extranjeros de esa Valle de Santa Rosa, March 1, 1844.)

We know from yet another document that Santiago Van’s daughter, Maria, Matilde, unmarried, died of the Colera Morbus at the age of 20, and was buried May 6, 1849 in the Muzquiz cemetery: :“Hija a Santiago Van y de Salome Hernandez, doncella de edad de 20 anos.”

(Archivos paroquiales, Iglesia de Santa Rosa de Lima, Muzquiz, Coahuila, Mexico.)

Quemado Librarian Chris Turk, in an article entitled “100 Years of Heritage” wrote in the Eagle Pass News Guide about the J.M. Wipff ranch house.

“An old rock house known as the Chupadero. This home of old was built by a Cherokee Indian, Green Van, some time before the Civil War. However, (Maverick County) Court House records show the name Manuel Ban, and the land was purchased from the State of Texas.”

(Chris Turk, “100 Years of Heritage” ) Eagle Pass News Guide, February 11 1982.)

Dorothy Ostrom Worrell says that Green Van’s mother “Salome Edwards Van and his brother Frank Vann established a home in Castroville ...she and her son Frank Vann are both buried in the old cemetery in Castroville.”

(Dorothy Ostrom Worrell, “Green Van, Builder ....” Eagle Pass News Guide June 2, 1949.)

Yet we find, interestingly, a Sallie Van from Georgia living in Maverick County at Eagle Pass with Francisco Van at the time of the Census count in the 1870 U.S. Census of Maverick County.

Dorothy also quotes Jesse Sumpter in recalling Green Van’s pro Union leanings. “Out of 83 votes cast in the Secession referendum in 1861 at Eagle Pass, 80 were in favor of the Union, three in favor of Secession.” (Ibidem)

“There were four Eagle Pass men especially marked by the Confederates as being strong Union sympathizers,” Uncle Jesse Sumpter recalled in 1902 “Aleck Oswald, Charles Groos, Green Vann and myself.”

(“Jesse Sumpter, Oldest Eagle Pass Citizen Recalls”)

The wily old Cherokee got wind of the assassination plan, and eluded confederate Captain Hammer, Sumpter reveals. Oswald was not so fortunate victim of the Confederate plot. “Green Van was a PIN Indian, Doctor Rogers points out, loyal to the Union.” If he escaped the massacre in East Texas by the Texan forces and came to Muzquiz with his father and mother in 1840 or 1841 as we suspect, he was nine or ten when the Cherokees were forced from their lands in East Texas.

A decades-old Maverick County tradition also says that the Wipff Ranch house in northern Maverick County was the work of Green Vann.

(Frances Ethel Wipff “Cherokee House” Eagle Pass News Guide )

Another tells of the 1873 construction of the Rita San Miguel Ranch House on El Sauz, of which an 1890 photo survives in the Centennial edition of the Eagle Pass News Guide, (1949) with the people pictured in it identified by none other than Dorothy Ostrom Worrell.

When the Indian depredations into Maverick County from Mexico worsened in the early 1870s, northern Maverick County ranchman Green Vann headed the 20 man Minutemen (Rangers) group from October 1872 to October 1873.

(“Minute Companies in Service - 1873”. Texas State Library Archives Austin.)
(Maverick County pioneer Trinidad San Miguel also mentions Vann’s (Maverick County)
minutemen in an Eagle Pass Daily Guide article of March 31, 1932.)

Many do not realize that it was Green Vann who was elected Maverick County Sheriff February 15, 1876, to succeed Jesse Sumpter, but Dorothy Worrell says he was killed while working cattle at the Chupadero Ranch on February 22, 1876.

(Election Register, Maverick County copy from Texas State Archives Austin, and Dorothy Ostrom Worrell, ut supra)

Indeed, the Maverick County Commissioners Court Minutes for the April 18, 1876 Special Term support our information regarding the untimely death of the Sheriff elect, who apparently never took office. He died, in fact, prior to the ten days required by law to qualify for the office.

“To honor Manuel Van, elected Sheriff of Maverick County on February 15, 1876, did die since his election and before qualification day and consequently did fail to qualify, whereby a vacancy in the office of Sheriff of Maverick County was created, and under Section 23, Art. 5 of the Constitution of AD 1876, it became the duty of the County Commrs. Court of Maverick County to appoint his successor in office; therefore, after due consideration, the Court does appoint C.J. Cook to fill said vacancy conditioned that he doth qualify, according to law within ten days after date. It is further ordered and decreed by the Court that the Collections bonds of the afore appointed C.J. Cook be as follows, to wit: As Collector of State taxes to the amount of two thousand dollars; and as Collector of County taxes to the amount of three thousand seven hundred dollars.”
William Stone, Presiding Judge.

(Maverick County Commissioners Court Minute Book Number One, page 174 - Maverick County Clerks Office)

We read in the U.S. Census taken July 29, 1870 that there was counted (29 228) one 26 year old Mexico born freighter Francisco Van and his 20 year old Mexico born wife and their four month old Texas born daughter Evalina, along with 64 year old Georgia born Salome Van.

Simple math tells us that Francisco Van was born, therefore, in 1844. (Is this Frank Van and his mother Salome, of whom Dorothy Ostrom Worrel writes?)

That same 1870 Census also (31 242) lists one 34 year old freighter John Van, with his 29 year old Mexico born wife Hilaria, nine year old Mexico born son Jose Maria, six year old Texas born son Santiago, and three year old Texas born daughter Juana.

John Van could have been of Cherokee extraction, his place of birth listed ii this Census as Georgia, born in 1836. (Was John Van one of the four children?

The Eagle Pass Guide of July 9, 1898 carries an obituary on the front page of 62 year old Jack J. Van, who died July 5, 1898 at 6pm in Eagle Pass. He had “lived in Eagle Pass the past 30 years” (since 1868) the Guide obituary states.

If we put the Guide obituary article together with the 1870 U.S. Census, we find that both these John Vans were born in 1836.

(Eagle Pass Guide, July 9, 1898)

APPENDIX

(From the Depredations on the Frontiers of Texas, Deposition No. 543. )

Manuel Ban testified that he was now (1873) a citizen of the United States in command of a company of “minute men” on the Rio Grande frontier. Van had lived at Santa Rosa (Coahuila) in Mexico from 1842 to 1854, and resides now in Maverick County, Texas.

When Santiago Vidaurri was Governor of Nuevo Leon and Coaguila, a small band of Kickapoos lived at Morelos in Coaguila. In obedience to the wishes of (Governor) Vidaurri, Vicente Garza, political chief (Jefe Politico) of Coaguila, sent an invitation to the Kickapoo tribe to come to Mexico. Land was offered to them, sixty miles above Piedras Negras, along with oxen garden seeds, tools, etc. The Kickapoos came over about five months after Vidaurri’s proposals.

Before their arrival, Vidaurri had gone out of office and Gregorio Galindo Governor of Coahuila, received the Indians. Manuel Ban saw the commissioners hand their report to the Governor. They reported the arrival to Captain A. Guerre’s (Manuel Ban’s brother in law) company.

Shortly after the Kickapoos settled they began to cross the Rio Grand and depredate on Texas. Manuel Ban testified that he had followed their trails to the river. Stolen horses and cattle from Texas were found in the Kickapoo camp at Santa Rosa. (Muzquiz, Coahuila) Lipan Indians assisted in these raids. The Mexican authorities were notified of these raids by Texans.

In 1866 a band of Indians passed near the Ban ranch (eighteen miles above Eagle Pass) with a large number of stolen horses they had picked up in Texas. With twenty two men, Ban pursued and overtook them, and found them to be Lipan Indians from Mexico. After a brisk fight, Ban’s fourteen man force repulsed the twenty one man Lipan force, and the Indians were repulsed. Ban thus captured one hundred and eighty head of stolen cattle from the Lipans. In this 1866 encounter, Ban was wounded in the breast and nearly died. The Indian who wounded him was called “Voluntario.” Ban wounded an Indian known as Enrique and one called Juan Guerrero. Four days after the fight, Juan Guerrero was in Monclova Viejo in Mexico with the wounded.

All the Indians lived in Mexico. They knew Ban and cursed him by name during the fight. General (J.J.) Reynolds was trying then to induce the Kickapoos to return, (to their reservation in the United States) and the Mexican authorities (at Santa Rosa) were working to prevent this. Ban testified that he saw a private letter of his brother in law, Captain Guerre to his mother stating that he (Guerra) was going with a subsidy of several thousand dollars to the Kickapoos, sent by the government.

Four years ago (1869) the Kickapoos raided into Texas and stole over forty one horses around Eagle Pass, Fort Clark, etc. Two of Manuel Ban’s employees saw the Indians cross the Rio Grande from Mexico at a point twenty one miles above Eagle Pass. Ban’s men followed the Indians and recaptured the horses near Santa Rosa when the Indians were asleep. The hoses were so worn out, they needed rest and the men drove them into Santa Rosa.

Captain Guerra, Mexican army, arrested Ban’s men on suspicion of stealing the horses. When the Kickapoos got into Santa Rosa they claimed the horses, but finally Guerra released the (Ban) employees and imprisoned some Kickapoos for a few days. The Kickapoos claimed the horses as having got them beyond the “big water,” the Rio Grande, and they were represented before the Mexican authorities by one Jesus Galan who insisted that the Kickapoos were at war with the United States, and had a perfect right to steal from Texans. Manuel Ban forwarded papers and succeeded in recovering some horses (seventeen in all) belonging to Marion Pullit, Mr. Wiley, and John Baker (all Texans). The horses were abused, and most of them died soon afterward. Manuel Ban believed that none of these would have been recovered except for the friendly offices of his brother in law Captain Guerra.

Since 1865, Mexicans had been crossing the Rio Grande, and preying of the Texans. This fact had been “notoriously known for a long while.” For some time these bands crossed the Rio Grande above Fort Duncan. After a time, they were pursued by citizens, and the crossing above Duncan has been abandoned.

Below Eagle Pass there were some Mexican settlements this side of Laredo. They were not strong enough to stop the marauders, but Manuel Ban did not think they would if they could. Manuel Ban had trailed stolen herds within sight of these houses and settlements, and in no case had any of these settlers reported the depredations. There were large roads to the river used by these marauding parties, and they were used almost daily.

On January 19, 1873, Manuel Ban with nineteen minute men went down the Rio Grande below Eagle Pass, found the cattle trails referred to; camped and posted men to watch the roads. On January 25, the men were placed on both sides of the river.

A mounted man was reported to Ban on this side of the river. Soon, five other men mounted joined him. Ban moved to cut this party off from the crossing; they started at a run and got to the crossing in advance. At the crossing, they found about fifteen or twenty Mexicans in the river going over; as they were nearer the Mexican bank than the American, and had no property in their possession, Ban did not fire on them. “The Mexican party disappeared in the timber and crept around, hid their horses and opened a brisk fire on us,” Ban testified; Ban and his party answered their fire with about two hundred shots, but the attacking part, finally broke and fled. Ban lost no men, but learned that three of the Mexicans were killed and six wounded, four of whom afterward died. Sostenes de Luna was the captain of this gang, and he was one of the wounded. The Mexican party had just crossed, and were going into the rattle range.

On February 18, 1873, Ban was eighteen miles above Eagle Pass, and saw two mounted men crossing the river. With two of his command, Ban moved to cut the men off from the river, and they ran when seen. On the bank of the river Ban saw these men stripped and swimming back to Mexico. He ordered them to halt. They did not, and they were fired on, wounding one of them. Some Mexicans in a field, at request of Ban, stopped the fugitives. Ban went to Monclova Viejo Mexico and cited the men before the Alcalde. The Alcade declared the men were honest and liberated them. Ban later sent an official communication to the Alcalde, by one of his men, and informed him that these men were thieves, caught with stolen property. No reply was received.

(Depredations on the Frontiers of Texas, Deposition No. 543, House Executive Document 257, 43rd Congress, I Session, courtesy of the Texas Mate Library Archives, Austin)