2006 Hall of Fame Inductee
Colonel Juan Seguin*

2006 Hall of Fame Inductee

Juan Seguin

Colonel Juan Nepomuceno Seguin, a Tejano hero of the Texas Revolution, held many positions throughout his life but as patriarch, he made his most outstanding contribution.

Seguin was born in 1806 in San Fernando de Bejar, New Spain, which is now San Antonio. His father had first come to Texas as a Spanish Army Officer stationed at the San Antonio Prescedio. Seguin began his long career of public service at an early age. He helped his mother run his father's post office and served in Congress in 1823-24. Seguin's election as alderman in December 1828 demonstrated his great potential. He subsequently served on various electoral boards before being elected alcalde in December 1833. He acted for most of 1834 as political chief of the Department of Bexar, after the previous chief became ill and retired.

Col. 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 5th it participated in the assault on Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos's army at San Antonio. Seguín entered the Alamo with the other Texan military and when the 1836 revolution broke out he was in the Alamo with the small force of defenders.

Because Seguin spoke only Spanish, he was chosen to carry the message through lines that the Texans "shall never surrender or retreat." Seguin got the message to the other soldiers on the Texan side. He returned to the Alamo, but it had already fallen to Santa Anna. Seguin arranged for the dead Alamo defenders to be buried with military honors.

Col. Seguin led a small company of Tejano volunteers at the Battle of San Jacinto in which the 800 man Texan force defeated the 2,500 man Mexican army in an 18 minute battle that led the next day to the capture of the Mexican President and the Independence of Texas.

Col. Seguin was elected to the Texas Senate in 1838 and became mayor of San Antonio in 1841. Seguin also served two terms as Justice of the Peace of Bexar County in 1852 and 1854 and as County Judge in Wilson County in 1869. He eventually settled in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, where his son Santiago was mayor.

Col. Seguin died at age eighty-three. History recalls that he was the savior of San Antonio, Texas, Hero at San Jacinto and namesake for the city of Seguin, Texas.

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