History of the

History of the "Negro Bridge" North of Brownsville
As Compiled by Javier R. Garcia, November 2009

Note: In 2008 while working at the Historic Brownsville Museum, Javier Garcia, Associate Director of Special Collections and Research, came across a photograph upon whose backside was written "Negro Bridge" where some men were hung. This intriguing tidbit then generated research into the meaning of this mysterious entry. Javier firstly dispensed inquiries in all directions to Valley historians. Following is a sequence of subsequent investigations, discoveries, and interpretations.

The first e-mail (4/28/08) from Javier was titled Puente de los Negroes (or Nigger Bridge) in Brownsville. It read:

Michael,

Forgive my "historical" use of the description used in the subject heading. It just depends on whether a person considered themselves "Mexican" or "American" what the bridge was called back then.
You had asked me if I knew of the incident described in the caption of which I had not. If you could provide me with some clues as to when this might have happened, I would like to investigate it. This photo was taken around the 1920s, I guess, during the construction of Hwy. 12 (I haven't even looked that up yet). But the incident may have happened anytime thereafter.
I'm supposing the incident would have happened in the 1930s or so.
There are many newspaper accounts during that period from around the country of lynchings (sic) etc. I just wish I knew when this occurred. I still find it hard to believe.
Anyway, just a little follow up to your question earlier. I can still neither confirm nor deny such an event ever took place (but hope to find out).
(To others reading this: If you received a CC of this e-mail and can shed some light on the subject, I would appreciate a truly appreciate a response.)

A response was forthcoming from Rolando L. Garza, Archaeologist/Research Manager Palo Alto Battlefield NHS. It reads:

How are you all doing? As I understood it, the bridge was constructed in the first or the beginning second decade of the twentieth century. It was called "El Puente de los Negros" because the crew that constructed it was entirely composed of African-American workers, I guess a spectacle at the time. I believe it was on old Hwy 77 in the Olmito area. I have seen a 1916 birth certificate with that location listed as the place of birth. It was actually an old farm house close to the bridge where this individual was born. The story should come out in the next publications of the UTB press "Stories in Brownsville/Matamoros History".

Eugene Fernandez was to offer the following on 5/1/08 to Rolando and interested individuals:

Hold The Press!
This site was actually called Puente Los Negritos as I recall. The name came from an incident connected with the Raid of 1906. You must understand that there were very few events or historical references to "people of color" in this part of the country, especially at the time or after the Fort Brown incident. I heard an account, that after the famous incident, there was a unit of black soldiers that made it to this point, and were bewildered by the events that had happened within the span of that evening, and so they camped out at this point. The bridge was originally a small wooden roadway bridge that crossed a very small resaca lowland where the La Quinta now stands, just westerly of the 77/83 highway. Interestingly enough, this was the farm of my great-grandfather "Papagrande" Harrison.
There was indeed a two-story wooden house at that site, up from the "bottom land" as my family called it. The house was moved at some time during the depression, from West Elizabeth ( one block from the Central Boulevard junction) to this farmsite. Papagrande Harrison came down from East Texas in 1919 and leased the Vivier Building at the corner of Elizabeth and 11th.
He had a company called Harrison Drygoods on that site. The original Vivier Building burned down in the late 80's as I recall. There is a similar brick building there now. Papagrande not only farmed the land at Los Negritos, but he also portioned farmland from the Rabb Plantation out in Southmost during the Great Depression. My uncle Ernest Fernandez told me that he was talking to one of the workers at the Union Carbide plant at some point during the 1980's, and this individual was bragging about how he had pulled off a burglary of a farmhouse alongside Highway 77, where he had stolen some air conditioners and other goods, and how he had torched the building to cover his crime. My uncle turned silent and then stated that the building that this other individual had confessed to having destroyed had belonged to his grandfather - the old Harrison farm.

We sold the last remnant of this land in the 1960's. We sold Noriega Plantation (Rancho Viejo)(somewhat directly to the north of this land) to Bill Bass in about 1961, as I remember. The Los Negritos bridge also came into the limelight in the report of the Great Train Robbery/Derailment that happened in the "teens". I don't have my source history at hand, but we all know of the event. Call me if you need any more information.

Rolando was to reply:

Gene,
How are you doing? On the 1916 birth certificate, which is an official document, it is listed as "Puento de los Negros". However, knowing that it was a wooden roadway bridge helps. Javier sent me a photo showing a white construction crew making the concrete bridge. Which probably took place after the 1916 birth. So it is still plausible that the construction crew was an all black crew. However, it is also plausible that the origin of the name "Puente de los Negros or Negritos" could have come from the incident you referred. The trick now is to find out how we document where the name for the bridge came from.
Take Care,

In return Eugene stated:

Rolando, Allow me to address a couple of points:
1.) What is the family name on the birth document that you have?
2.) Concerning a black work crew that constructed the bridge, I was under the impression that by far, if not all of the common labor that was connected with the building of this railroad was of Mexican or Mexican-American origin. All census reports indicate very few blacks in this part of the country, ever. We did not have the great cotton plantations like East Texas had, and the legacy of the linger-over from legalized slavery. Another factor was that a specialized element of bridge construction, requiring engineering, such as a bridge likely would have been an all-white endeavor at that time in our history.
3.) As to the naming of the bridge, things like this did not go through a formal name registering process with the County as they do today. The naming of Tejon Road was probably done as a local hearsay action, because someone found a large raccoon on the side of the road one morning, or Los Tomates Banco, because they always farmed tomatoes on that piece of land.
I just sent Javier another bit of information, but I failed to copy you on it. You may want to communicate with him on this.
Thanks, E.F.

The forthcoming answer reads:

1. It is Antonio Ramirez's birth certificate farmer and conjunto music pioneer.
2. That is my point as well, if it was such a rarity to see an all black work crew, it could easily have translated into the local population referring to the bridge as El Puente de los Negros. I imagine it would have been a temporary stay, and thus not have been revealed in the census
data. I am postulating that the engineers and crew leaders were all white and that the labor crew was black. Since there were virtually no blacks down here at the time, such a crew would have sparked a lot of curiosity, possibly leading to the referring of the bridge as such. Possibly, they
had just finished constructing similar structures in other parts of the state.
3. Yes I know the bridge was not officially named anything at the time. That is why I said the trick is to how we document the origin of the name. First we need to get a reliable construction date for the wooden bridge structure, search for other documents like that the birth certificate that have reliable dates and make reference to the bridge as such.
Listen, I am not saying I am right or wrong, all I am saying we can not discount all possible origins of the reference without more evidence. After all this is all oral tradition, and as you mentioned, a lot of urban legend or grossly false statements get incorporated into the oral tradition as it is passed down. Unfortunately, at this point I do not have the time nor the inclination to delve into researching this topic.
Your bud in history, Rolando

Eugene was to comment:

I don't know how this rumor got into the picture about a black work gang. We knew Col. Sam Robertson, very well. History has revealed to us that there were KKK processions down the main street of San Benito back in the 30's. We also knew the Hicks' (Benito) Benjamin Oliver Hicks, of the Stephen Powers/ Landrum lands that were incorporated into San Benito. Blacks simply do not equate in this region. The black regiment of "Buffalo Soldiers" was brought to this outpost on an order from Washington, without knowing what the social structure was set up as. The rest is history. There simply were no blacks involved in the building of South Texas, especially after the message got out about what happened at Fort Brown. I remember years later (the late 1960's), that blacks in New Orleans, where I lived for over twenty years, upon hearing of the word "Brownsville" got immediately militant and condemning at the mention. I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, but we have a long recorded history of who came and who went, referring to South Texas. The only blacks came with the railroad in traditional roles as stewards and porters. That was the way society was in this region. The two dominant social elements were the old Spanish land grant families, and the Protestant Anglo Saxon colonists that came with Gen. Taylor. Neither of these groups had any tolerance for the blacks, emancipated or otherwise. Besides, the blacks had absolutely no support column to their social units, farther to the East. This is the same reason you don't see any blacks in Odessa, or Santa Fe, or Phoenix. If you come up with a document that gives evidence that there was a black or a Chinese work party involved in the building of this bridge, I'll eat my hat. This is an excellent example of sensationalism entering into the public commentary, and it's just not fair. Some day I'll tell you the story of the "black drifter" that was "tended to" in a very interesting manner by the mayor of our city, after it was found that he had violated a young lady of society as she was placing flowers on her mother's grave, to give you an idea of what turn-of-the century thinking was like in deep south Texas. When I say that I heard first-hand from members of my family that it was because of the encampment of the rebellious soldiers that this bridge was named, that should end all speculation. I especially take my cousin Luis's commentary as a conformed second source. He mentioned this in a conversation that I had with him before he died at the age of 85. My uncle Ernest died two years ago at the age of 84. These were the closest eye-witness sources that one would ever hope for.

Most Respectfully, E. F.

And so the matter rested until a year and a half later when Javier Garcia provided this to all interested parties on November 6, 2009:

You may recall my bringing this up over a year ago after finding a photo with information written on it indicating "Negro Bridge" was where some men were hung. The misnomer is solved. While looking for info in the A.A. Champion files, I came across this little tidbit in one of his notebooks.

"This is Ralph Shmelling, and I am relating an incident here that Ignacio Dominguez, and old Peace Officer around here told me, about "Negro Bridge," which is here on Hwy 77 about 5 miles from Brownsville. He said that you are going to see that over the years people are going to give you the reason for the name of this bridge. They are going to tell you that "a Negro, or some other negroes once upon a time were hung at this location", others are going to tell you that Negro troops used to camp at this site." He said: the name of Negroe Bridge has nothing to do with the Negroes. The Mexican people built the original bridge and when they got down into the resaca, they got into this chocolate loam that is there, and by the time they finished the days work they resembled negroes. They were so black ... and one of the workers said" "mira nomas a los negroes", that was what gave this location the name of Negroe Bridge . reference to Negroes has nothing to do."

Although the bridge itself may have been solid, the story of its naming still left skepticism on the parts of some. Rolando Garza was to offer the last word. He writes:

Javier,
That is good work, but it is still sort of hearsay evidence or just one version of the oral history tradition written down in a local chronicler's notebook. That doesn't mean it is wrong, but it doesn't mean it is the end of the story, it is just another lead or avenue to finding the true origin of the name of that historic landmark. Somewhere out there may be harder evidence for where the locally accepted name for this bridge originated.
Then again there may not be.

Have a Great weekend!

Return to CCHC Home Page