AGHouston11 said:

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So did any of the relatives who served in the Confederate Army inflict casualties on opposing forces? This is important to know.

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Charpie said:

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Holy crap. I'm related to Kellen Mond

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GT_Aggie2015 said:

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unmade bed said:

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Side note: I don't know who Hector Feria's, Jr PhD (letter writer) is, but I am fairly certain he is an Outdoors board poster.

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do tell more

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FunkyKO said:

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Someone's momma never told their kid the family tree.

All kidding aside. What a very interesting family tree.

Lot of schools named after them.

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He was preceded in death by his parents, Leopoldo P. Botello, Sr. and Maria Cristina Martin Botello, both direct descendants of founding families of Laredo. Also preceding him were his brothers, Victor Jose Botello and Guillermo Botello. Leopoldo is survived by his wife, Sharon Hull Botello; his children, Leopoldo P. (Judy) Botello, III, Lourdes B. (Gildeberto) Valdez, Leticia B.(Kevin) Mond,....

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Colonel Santos Benavides in Laredo actually became the highest ranking tejano officer in the Confederate Army. There are instances of him acting as a slave catcher, where he's actually going into Mexico and retrieving runaway slaves and returning them to their masters, for which he was compensated.

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(18281900). Raymond Martin, landowner, rancher, and political boss of Webb County, was born in Auzas Haute, Garonne, France, on May 31, 1828, to Jean Marie and Marie Antoinette (Chanfrean) Martin. His father, a prosperous merchant in the wine-growing region of southwestern France, taught his three sons, Paul, Joseph, and Raymond, basic business skills that were beneficial when they immigrated to the United States. In 1852 Martin left his homeland for New Orleans, where he hoped to start a mercantile business. Over the next seven years he moved first to Pensacola, Florida, then to San Antonio, Texas, and finally to Laredo in 1854. He promptly opened a small store to the south of San Agustn Church, overlooking the Rio Grande. By 1859 Martin, fluent in French, Spanish, and English, had become an American citizen and had been elected to the Laredo City Council. Profits from his successful mercantile enterprise allowed him to make property-secured loans to local businessmen and ranchers. Unpaid loans led him to foreclose on both properties and ranchlands. In the 1860s he began raising vast herds of sheep and cattle on his growing land empire (estimated at 130,000 acres by the end of the century), and by the mid-1860s he had made a fortune as a businessman and rancher. He was one of the organizers of the Laredo Bank.

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