Tejano History

Ruiz, Marcos

Ruiz, Marcos

Tejanos |

       RUIZ, MARCOS (ca. 1701–?). On September 20, 1754, Marcos Ruiz, a lieutenant in the Spanish army, was ordered by Governor Jacinto Barrios y Jáureguiqv to proceed to the mouth of the Trinity River and investigate a rumor that four Frenchmen and two Spaniards were illegally trading there. Accompanied by twenty-five soldiers and members of the Bidai and Orcoquisac Indian groups, on October 10 Ruiz found and captured Joseph Blancpain, Elias George, Antonio Dessars, and two black slaves, taking them to San Xavier. Ruiz claimed that he distributed all the trade goods captured to the Bidais and Orcoquisacs, but Blancpain later claimed that Ruiz seized ten times the goods distributed. In September 1755 Ruiz was sent to Mexico with a report on plans for settlement on the lower Trinity. While in Mexico, on February 29, 1756, he was appointed lieutenant commander of a proposed presidio, San Agustín de Ahumada, and ordered to recruit thirty men on his way back to Texas. When he was able to recruit only fifteen men, Barrios provided him with sixteen more, and on May 27, 1756, Ruiz formally occupied a place near the site of present Wallisville in Chambers County. The spot became known as El Orcoquisac. In August 1756 Ruiz served on a commission appointed by Barrios and headed by Bernardo de Miranda y Flores to locate a site for civilian settlement for fifty families. They recommended Los Ojos de Santa Rosa del Alcazar twenty leagues from the gulf. In April 1758 Ruiz and Barrios explored a new proposed site at El Atascoso. On March 10, 1759, Governor Ángel de Martos y Navarrete received orders to take charge of Los Adaes and hold a residencia on Barrios. 

 

Full article on the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas Online

   Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.