SEGUÍN BIO JUAN SEGUIN
SEGUIN, JUAN NEPOMUCENO (1806-1890)
Seguin's military career began in 1835. In the spring he responded
to the Federalist state governor's call for support against the
Centralist opposition by leading a militia company to Monclova.
After the battle of Gonzales in October 1835, Stephen F. Austin
granted a captain's commission to Seguin,who raised a company of
thirty-seven. His company was involved in the fall of 1835 in
scouting and supply operations for the revolutionary army, and on
December 5 it participated in the assault on Gen. Martin Perfecto de
Cos's army at San Antonio. Seguin entered the Alamo with the other
Texan military when Antonio L6pez de Santa Anna's army arrived,but was sent out as a courier. Upon
reaching Gonzales he organized a company that functioned as the rear guard of Sam Houston's army,was
the only Tejano unit to fight at the battle of San Jacinto, and afterward observed the Mexican army's
retreat. Seguin accepted the Mexican surrender of San Antonio on June 4, 1836, and served as the city's
military commander through the fall of 1837; during this time he directed burial services for the remains
of the Alamo dead. He resigned his commission upon election to the Texas Senate at the end of the year.
Seguin,the only Mexican Texan in the Senate of the republic, served in the Second, Third, and
Fourth Congress.He served on the Committee of Claims and Accounts and, despite his lack of English,
was chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Among his legislative initiatives were efforts to have
the laws of the new republic printed in Spanish. In the spring of 1840 he resigned his Senate seat to assist
Gen.Antonio Canales, a Federalist,in an abortive campaign against the Centralists,but upon his return to
San Antonio at the end of the year he found himself selected mayor. In this office Seguin became
embroiled in growing hostilities between Anglos and Mexican Texans. He faced personal problems as
well. He had gained the enmity of some residents by speculating in land. He financed his expedition in
support of Canales by mortgaging property and undertook a smuggling venture in order to pay off the
debt. Although upon his return from Mexico he came under suspicion of having betrayed the failed Texan
Santa Fe expedition,he still managed to be reelected mayor at the end of 1841.His continuing conflicts
with Anglo squatters on city property, combined with his business correspondence with Mexico,
incriminated him in Gen. Rafael Vasquez's invasion of San Antonio in March 1842. In fear for his safety,
Seguin resigned as mayor on April 18, 1842.
During the 1850s he became involved in local politics and served as a Bexar County
constable and an election-precinct chairman. His business dealings took him back to Mexico on
JUAN SEGUIN
occasion, and at the end of the 1860s, after a brief tenure as Wilson county judge, Seguin retired
to Nuevo Laredo, where his son Santiago had established himself. He died there on August 27,
1890. His remains were returned to Texas in 1974 and buried at Seguin, the town named in his
honor, during ceremonies on July 4, 1976.