The town of Gonzales hosts a parade of substantial size each
year called "Come and Take It". We have participated in this parade
several years now and it is one of the larger and
better parades that we have done. As our club grows, participation in
events has increased and we have made a good showing at this
parades.
Due to the size of the Gonzales parade, motor
vehicle clubs are restricted to a maximum of eight (8) vehicles. Please
let Danny know ASAP (512.385.0168) who will be
participating.
The Come
& Take It Festival celebrates the firing of the first shot of the
Texas revolution on Oct. 2, 1835, which took place near Gonzales.
The town of Gonzales was
established by Empresario Green DeWitt in 1825, two and one-half miles
east of the confluence of the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers. It was the
westernmost Anglo settlement until the close of the Texas Revolution and
was named in honor of Don Rafael Gonzales, provisional governor of
Coahuila, Mexico and Texas. The town was laid out in the shape of a cross,
with seven squares. During the colonial period of 1825 to 1835, there were
many problems with Comanche and Tonkawa Indians, but Gonzales flourished.
It was a thriving capital of the De Witt colony by 1833.
In 1831 the Mexican government
loaned the citizens of Gonzales a six-pound cannon as protection against
the Indians. In September of 1835, as political unrest grew, Mexican
officials at San Antonio de Bexar demanded the cannon be returned.
A corporal with five soldiers
and an oxcart were first sent by Col. Ugartechea, Bexar military
commander, to Gonzales. The corporal carried a request that the small
reinforced cannon, a bronze six-pounder, be returned to the Mexican Army.
Andrew Ponton refused to relinquish it, stalling for time, and the little
cannon was buried in George W. Davis' peach orchard, near the Guadalupe
River.
Next came Lieutenant Castaneda
and 150 mounted soldiers to "take" the cannon. When the soldiers
appeared on the west bank of the Guadalupe River, there were only 18 men
in Gonzales, but these 'Old Eighteen' stood at the river in defiance,
denied the Mexicans a crossing by hiding the ferry and sent out a call for
volunteers to assist them.
As the soldiers scouted the
river for a place to cross, they moved upriver a short distance, near the
present-day community of Cost and camped for the night. There, in the
early-morning hours of Oct. 2, 1835, the colonists crossed the river with
their cannon, surprising the troops and waving their hastily fashioned
flag, which proclaimed "Come and Take It." Almost immediately
the cannon fired, killing one of Castenada's men and scattering the rest,
forcing them to retreat to San Antonio de Bexar. Thus was fired the shot
that set off the struggle for Texas independence from Mexico. When the
smoke cleared, the Mexican troops had taken off. The Texas Revolution had
begun.
Gonzales became known as
"The Lexington of Texas", where the first shot was fired, and
where the first Texas Army of Volunteers gathered. A few months after the
first shot, men and boys from the region would gather in Gonzales, sending
the only reinforcements ever received at the Alamo.
Each October, on the weekend
nearest the October 2 anniversary, the citizens of Gonzales gather to
celebrate their Texas heritage in a three-day festival called "Come
& Take It."