In May 1826, permission was granted, by the Bishop of Durango, to erect a church at San Jose. The original adobe homes were built closely together around a square, which could be closed for defense in times of Indian raids. In March 1803, nine years after the founding of San Jose, Pedro Rautista Pino, acting on orders of the governor, partitioned the land to the 47 heads of households of San Jose.Īfter the establishment of the Santa Fe Trail in 1821, San Jose became one of the many stops along the trail in the Pecos River Valley.Ĭhurch in San Jose, New Mexico courtesy Google Maps The residents were joined by Indians of other pueblos, including the more progressive Pecos Indians, who entered into a genízaro status and thus contributed to the depopulation of the Pecos Pueblo. When the Genizaros became unruly in Santa Fe, Governor Fernando Chacon appointed Don Luis Maria Cabeza de Baca to settle them in the Pecos River Valley. The community was first settled by Spanish military personnel and the Genízaro colony of Santa Fe. Genizaros were Indians that did not belong to any tribe, having been captured and sold by the Spanish, educated as Christians, and, consequently, ostracized from their own tribes.

This was one of many colonial towns that the Spanish created to serve as buffer zones against hostile Indian raids. After the community of San Miguel was settled in 1794, the original colonists and others arriving from Santa Fe next established the community of San Jose on the west bank of the Pecos River about 28 miles southwest of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Joseph of the Ford) was originally part of the San Miguel del Vado Land Grant in 1794. Like its neighbor, San Miguel, San Jose Del Vado (St. Native Americans were enslaved by the Spanish.

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