Women That Time Forgot Adina Emilia De Zavala
Adina Emilia De Zavala (November 28, 1861 – March 1, 1955) was an American teacher, historian and preservationist of Texas history.
Her efforts led to saving the Alamo for future generations. She was born to Augustine De Zavala (originally de Zavala), son of Lorenzo de Zavala, the first Vice President of the Republic of Texas. Adina’s mother Julia Tyrrell De Zavala was born in Ireland.
According to historian L. Robert Ables, Adina was a blue-eyed brunette Hispanic, about 5 feet 3 inches tall. Growing up in a mixed heritage household, she never learned to speak Spanish. Her mother Julia Tyrell De Zavala had been born in Ireland but educated in Texas. Augustine’s mother, Adina’s grandmother, was Emily West of New York.
In a 1935 Holland’s Magazine interview she described herself as a “jealous lover of Texas history”. Adina was home schooled until 1871 when she was enrolled in Ursuline Academy in Galveston. From 1879 to 1881, Adina was enrolled in Sam Houston Normal Institute (now Sam Houston State University) in Huntsville, Texas. She also received a music education from a school in Chillicothe, Missouri. Adina became a teacher in Terrell, Texas from 1884 to 1886. In 1887, she joined family members who had moved to San Antonio, where she taught at elementary schools until 1907, emphasizing education about Texas heritage.
Adina De Zavala was a prolific writer of Texas history. In 1900, she wrote the playlet, The Six National Flags That Have Floated Over Texas, as an educational tool about the ethnic diversity in the state. She authored History and Legends of the Alamo and Other Missions In and Around San Antonio in 1917, a perspective that highlights the role of women and other minorities in the history of both the Alamo and Texas. Adina De Zavala was a proponent of a March 2 statewide recognition of Texas Independence Day, and was instrumental in Texas public schools being named for state heroes.
Shortly after Adina came to San Antonio in 1887, she formed the “De Zavala Daughters” organization dedicated to preserving and marking Texas history. Between 1922 and 1935, the association researched and marked 28 historic sites in San Antonio and 10 elsewhere in the state. De Zavala’s initial efforts were towards saving these historical structures, in particular the Mission San Antonio de Valero otherwise known as the Alamo. The public entrance known as the Alamo’s mission chapel was already owned by the State of Texas, which had purchased the building from the Roman Catholic Church in 1883 and had given custody to the City of San Antonio. The city had made no improvements to the chapel structure, and ownership did not include the Long Barrack, which was owned by wholesale grocer Gustav Schmeltzer. The De Zavala chapter of the DRT in 1902 organized the Congress of Patriotism, with the aim of creating a “Texas Hall of Fame” museum in the Alamo Long Barrack (or convento). On October 4, 1905, the governor formally conveyed the Alamo property, including the convento and the mission church, to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The building’s lease was due to expire on February 10, 1908. Two days before the expiration of the lease, De Zavala refused to obey an injunction to vacate and shut herself away in an upstairs area, without any provisions to sustain herself. The sheriff had the electricity and telephone cut and threatened to send anyone to jail who brought her food. Nevertheless, both food and extra clothing were smuggled in, and law enforcement allowed water and coffee. Sheriff Tobin eventually had the electricity restored for lighting to keep the rats at bay. The 46-year-old Adina stated she was willing to die for the cause. The siege lasted three days and attracted spectators and newspaper coverage from around the country. Once her attorneys had worked out an agreement to temporarily turn the structure over to the governor, Adina emerged. By 1911, Governor Oscar Branch Colquitt ordered the Long Barrack be restored to its original condition as it was in mission days. On March 2, 1951, the San Antonio Conservation Society presented De Zavala with an award for “marking historic homes and sites.”
Adina died at age 93 on March 1, 1955. On April 27, 1955, the Texas State Legislature passed Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 51 paying tribute to her for playing “a major role in preserving the Alamo and the Spanish Governor’s Palace” and for placing “permanent markers on some 40 historic sites in Texas, many of which might otherwise be forgotten.”
In 1994 the Daughters of the Republic of Texas dedicated a special Commemorative Marker at her gravesite. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Marker number 86 was placed at Alamo Plaza to honor De Zavala In 2008, Texas Historical marker number 15124 was placed in St. Mary’s Cemetery to honor De Zavala’s contributions to Texas.
