Luis De Las Casas Y Aragorri

CASAS Y ARAGORRI, Luis de las, governor-general of Cuba, born in Sopuerta, Spain. in 1745; died in 1800. He entered the army, and in 1769 came to Louisiana under the Spanish General O'Reilly, where he remained six years as commander of the garrison. In 1774 he returned to Spain, took part in several wars, and was appointed in 1790 governor-general of Cuba. During his administration the prosperity and welfare of the island had a great development. To him was due the creation of the first newspaper ever published in Cuba, the "Papel Periodico," the first number of which appeared 81 October, 1791. Casas himself was one of the most constant contributors. Under his administration were established the charity asylum, the patriotic society for intellectual, industrial, and agricultural development, the first public library in Cuba, and the first census was taken. He caused to be constructed many public roads and bridges, and founded public schools, contributing with his own purse toward their support. He was the first to recommend to the Madrid government the wise policy of opening the ports of the island of Cuba to foreign commerce. Casas returned to Spain in 1796 as poor as when he had first arrived at Havana, and died in absolute poverty.

.) The Intendant helped audit the Cabildo's revenue, borrowing and lending from that treasury when needed. The results of the audit were passed on to superiors in Cuba for review. The intendency's legal advisor also counseled the Cabildo and revenues from the two courts were shared. Sometimes members of the Cabildo were on the Intendant's staff.

1803
Late April By an order from Morales all communications with Americans on the Tombigbee River and in Mobile is cut off.
1803
May 5 Daniel Clark writes to Claiborne, currently the governor of the Territory of Mississippi. He says Morales has told him (through Wilkinson) that the U. S. may not always be a friend of Spain and it was in the best interest of Spain that all American settlements in Spanish territories be discouraged .
Clark convinces the Spanish to reassess the Tombigbee order, warning that the Americans may resort to violence to reopen markets and supply lines.
1805
July 20 In July of 1805 Morales again stops movement of goods through the port of Mobile, saying that the Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney's Treaty) prohibits foreign commerce on the Mobile River. Claiborne sends his secretary John Graham to Mobile to negotiate and to see if the Spanish are increasing their garrisons there.
1805
October 15 Casa Calvo, in company with Juan Ventura Morales, leaves New Orleans for the old post of Adaise (or Los Adaes), near Natchitoches.

1805
November Madison orders the deportation of Casa Calvo and Morales.
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Juan Ventura Morales is now the Intendant of Spanish West Florida. Vincente Folch is the Governor and Carlos DeHault de Lassus is commandant at Baton Rouge.
Former Louisiana governorCasa Calvo, is now the Spanish Commissioner to determine the Western Boundary of Louisiana.
These Spanish officials have continued to live in New Orleans after the transfer with a detachment of 50 Spanish Regulars.
Morales is encouraging land speculation in West Florida, enriching himself on land that is claimed by the United States. Casa Calvo is spreading rumors that land west of the Mississippi will be traded for the Floridas. The marques, through traveling with the Intendent, finds him to be a disgusting and worrisome character.
1806
January 25 Early in January 1806 the two Spaniards Casa Calvo and Morales return to Natchitoches and on the 25th William C. C. Claiborne writes to Morales "I believe it a duty to remind you that the departure from the territory of yourself and the gentleman attached to your department will be expected in the course of the present month."
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January 30
Morales informs Claiborne that he is leaving New Orleans with his secretary Cayetano-Valdez and Domingo Heitas who is a doctor and pharmacist.

GAYOSO DE LEMOS, MANUEL (1747-1799). Manuel Gayoso de Lemos Amorín y Magallanes was born in Oporto, Portugal, on May 30, 1747, the son of Spanish consul Manuel Luis Gayoso de Lemos y Sarmiento and Theresa Angélica de Amorín y Magallanes. He was educated in England and joined the Spanish Lisbon Regiment as a cadet on July 7, 1771. He was commissioned sublieutenant on July 20, 1772, and was promoted through the years, reaching the rank of brigadier on September 4, 1795.

On November 3, 1787, he was named governor of the fort and district of Natchez. He served at that post from 1789 until August 1797, during which time he encouraged American settlers, established posts as far north as Missouri, and organized militia, naval units, and defenses of the frontier to guard against possible attacks from Indians, American frontiersmen, or Jacobins. His valuable services in persuading the southern Indians to sign treaties in 1792, 1793, and 1795 secured a buffer zone between the American settlements and Spanish Louisiana. His close contacts with Gen. James Wilkinsonqv during the so-called "Spanish Conspiracy" introduced him to Philip Nolan,qv with whom he was tempted to form a business partnership in 1797 involving the importation of Texas horses into Louisiana and the trading of goods with Texas and Mexico.

Gayoso was appointed governor general of Louisiana and West Florida on October 28, 1796. He took office on August 5, 1797, and died in New Orleans of yellow fever on July 18, 1799, as Americans moved into the Natchez District. He was married three times: to Theresa Margarita Hopman y Pereira of Lisbon, to whom two children were born; to Elizabeth Watts of Philadelphia; and to Margaret Cyrilla Watts of Louisiana, to whom one son was born. Gayoso's correspondence with governors of Texas and the viceroy of New Spain during 1797-99 concerned the activities of Philip Nolan, whom Gayoso considered a dangerous enemy of Spain, and the preservation of Louisiana as a barrier to American expansion into Texas and New Spain.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dictionary of American Biography. Jack D. L. Holmes, Gallant Emissary: The Political Career of Manuel Gayoso de Lemos in the Mississippi Valley, 1789-1799 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1959). Jack D. L. Holmes, "Gallegos notables en la Luisiana," Cuadernos de Estudios Gallegos 19 (1964). Jack D. L. Holmes, Gayoso: The Life of a Spanish Governor in the Mississippi Valley, 1789-1799 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965). Jack D. L. Holmes, "La Última barrera: la Luisiana y la Nueva España," Historia Mexicana 10 (Abril-Junio 1961). Irving A. Leonard, "A Frontier Library, 1799," Hispanic American Historical Review 23 (February 1943).

Jack D. L. Holmes

gesq:
Called a buddy of mine yesterday and told him I wanted anything he had on the history of condoms on the Gulf Coast and Fort Powell. Believe it or not, HE HAD ALL I WANTED AND MORE!!!!

Looking For Dr. Condom is a 105 page investigation of the etyological meaning of the word "condom". It also includes a chronological history covering the years 1705 to 1972.
It gives me valuable insight into the local history of this ubiquitous and necessary devise.

The other book is entitled From That Terrible Field published by UA Press in '81. This is a collection of Civil War letters by James M. Williams. He was the commander of Fort Powell who blew it up at 10:30 P.M. on the evening of August 7, 1864. He named his youngest son, Powell. Incredible letters. The editor, John Kent Folmer, was teaching history at UMS when a student asked him if he wanted to read his great-grandfather's Civil War letters. Folmer said,"Sure," and the boy brought him a big black box with over 200 letters. Folmer publishes the 1862 Harper's Weekly drawings of Morgan,Gaines and Grant's Pass. He also publishes the "Explosion and Ruins of Fort Powell" published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, September 24, 1864.

Williams surrendered May 4, 1865 at Cuba Station, Alabama.(known today as "Cuba,Alabama") COOL,HUH!!!!
Lo mas mejor,
roberto

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Sebastian Calvo de la Puerta y O’Farril, Marquis de Casa Calvo
1757-1825



1751
born (in Spain?)
1769
Only 18 years of age at the time, Casa Calvo first comes to Louisiana with Governor O’Reilly . He is a close friend of O’Reilly, whose son married a niece of Casa Calvo.
1793
Casa Calvo is in command of Ft. Dauphine, St. Domingo, when 77 Frenchmen are brutally murdered by blacks, an outrage the Marquis permitted without offering any assistance to the unfortunate Frenchmen.
1799
September 18 Shortly after the death of Governor Gayoso, the Marquis de Someruelos, captain-general of Cuba and Louisiana, appoints Casa Calvo to be ad interim military governor of Louisiana.
One of his first acts is to transmit to the captain-general a petition from the planters, asking for the removal of restrictions on the importation of slaves. The planters want them to be brought to the colony in unlimited numbers, or at least enough of them to supply all the labor necessary for the conduct of the plantations.
1800
February 5 With the consent of the acting governor, the Marques de Casa-Calvo, Americans Evan Jones and William Hullings lead ceremonies commemorating the death of George Washington. A small parade and ceremonies on the levee are accompanied by a cannon salute by an American naval vessel on the river
1800
August Forty planters petition acting civil governor Vidal to renew the importation of bozales directly from Africa. Sindico Procurador General Pedro Barran leads the opposition in the Cabildo. He cites the lack of a fugitive slave fund and the abundance of fugitive slaves everywhere. The Cabildo votes to back him.
In the end Vidal, Casa-Calvo and Intendant Lopez decide that royal consent was not needed since the king had never validated Carondelet’s embargo of 1792.
1800
December 24 Intendant Lopez issues a proclamation permitting importation of bozales. Casa-Calvo, who had been a planter in Cuba sympathizes with the planters. The Cabildo refuses to recognize the validity of the proclamation and appeals to the crown. This is one of the few points on which the Cabildo prevails this late in the Spanish Era.
1801
July 15 Manuel Juan de Salcedo , a 58 year old colonel, arrives and assumes the office of governor. Nicolas Maria Vidal has been acting civil governor of Louisiana while the Marques de Casa-Calvo has been acting military governor of the colony. Casa Calvo immediately sails for Havana.
1803
Spring In the Spring of 1803 Casa Calvo returns to New Orleans having been appointed to act as joint commissioner with Salcedo in turning over the province of Louisiana to France.
Pierre Clement de Laussat, the French commissioner to recieve the colony summons all militia officers to his lodging to declare by yea or nay whether they intended to remain in the service of Spain.
1803
May 18 Salcedo and Casa-Calvo issue a joint proclamation informing the inhabitants of Louisiana about the retrocession. Eight days later they send a copy of the royal order authorizing the transfer to the Cabildo. The formal transfer awaits the arrival of French general Claude Perrin Victor, but he never arrives because the war has resumed in Europe.
1803
Nov. 30 The transfer of power is completed but Casa Calvo remains in New Orleans where he spends a considerable portion of his time encouraging the belief that Louisiana was to be re-ceded to Spain. He claims to have been appointed the Spanish Commissioner to determine the western boundary of Louisiana. He maintains a troop of 50 Spanish soldiers.
1805
Oct. 15 Casa Calvo in company with Morales, the intendant, leaves New Orleans for the old post of Adaise (or Adazes), near Natchitoches.
Gov. Claiborne, fearing it is the intention of the two Spanish officers to stir up dissension among the people in the western part of the territory, sent Captain Turner along with them to keep an eye on their movements and report.
1806
January Early in January 1806 the two Spaniards return to Natchitoches and on the 25th Claiborne writes to Morales "I believe it a duty to remind you that the departure from the territory of yourself and the gentleman attached to your department will be expected in the course of the present month."
1806
Feb. 4 Casa Calvo comes back to New Orleans on Feb. 4 and is almost immediately asked to leave the territory by the 15th. On the 12th Claiborne sends him a passport, with "best wishes for the health and happiness of the nobleman" whose presence has become so unacceptable. Casa Calvo is highly indignant at this treatment though there is nothing to do but to accept the passport and leave Louisiana, never to return.
1825
Casa Calvo dies