Belmont, Texas

Lake Gonzales is a reservoir on the Guadalupe River 4 miles (6 km) southeast of the town of Belmont in Gonzales County, Texas. The reservoir was formed in 1931 by the construction of a dam to provide hydroelectric power to the area. Management of the dam and lake was assume by the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority on May 1, 1963. Lake Gonzales also serves as a venue for outdoor recreation, including fishing, boating, swimming, camping and picnicking, and is maintained at a constant level year round.

Lake Gonzales is also known locally as H-4 Reservoir or Guadalupe Reservoir H-4.

The road begins at an intersection with US 90 on the east side of Seguin, crosses US 90 Alt., heading south to cross the Guadalupe River. From there, it goes east, passing through Monthalia. At Cost, it joins SH 97, just south of Gonzales.

Capote Road passes through a rural area that at one time was heavily farmed. In more recent years more of the sandy land has been given over to pastures, and reverted to post oak woodlands, which support a good population of wildlife, including wild turkeys and deer. The Guadalupe River runs more or less parallel a mile or two to the north, much of its bottomlands filled with pecan orchards. Old Baldy and the other Capote Hills rising above the flatlands provided a landmark for travelers in the pioneer days. Wildflower season sees groups of phlox and fields of bluebonnets, rose cups and buttercups, then gaillardia or Indian blankets, and sunflowers and nettles in the summer, sometimes punctuated by clusters of colorful blossoms on prickly pear cactus.

Martin Beaty (October 8, 1784 – June 17, 1856) was a United States Representative from Kentucky. He was born in Abingdon, Virginia. In his life, he worked as an iron furnace operator, a salt manufacturer, a rancher, and a farmer.

Beaty was a member of the Kentucky Senate 1824–1828 and 1832. He served as a Presidential Elector for Henry Clay and John Sergeant in 1832 and William Henry Harrison and Francis Granger in 1836. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Twenty-first Congress in 1828 and to the Twenty-second Congress in 1830 but was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress (March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1835). He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Twenty-fourth Congress in 1834. After leaving Congress, he was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, 1848. He died in 1856 in Belmont, Texas where he was buried in Belmont Cemetery.

After escaping, Cortez went to the ranch of Martín and Refugia Robledo near Belmont, Texas. There were seven persons at the Robledo house. Martín and Refugia Robledo, their three sons, Ramón Rodríguez (a boy living with the Robledos) and a visitor, Martín Sandoval. Gonzales County Sheriff Robert M. Glover, a friend of Sheriff Morris, knew where Cortez was hiding, probably from information obtained under duress. This information would have been either provided by Cortez's mother, wife or sister-in-law as they were the only people who knew where Cortez was going.[9]

According to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals report of facts, on June 15, 1904, at the time Sheriff Morris was killed, Sheriff Glover was in Cuero, DeWitt County, Texas. Glover proceeded with a deputy sheriff of De Witt County to Kennedy, in Karnes County, and there for the first time learned that Cortez was the man who had killed Sheriff Morris. Glover, knowing the rendezvous of Cortez, boarded a train in about twenty minutes after receiving the information that Cortez had done the killing and proceeded as expeditiously as he could to the town of Ottine, in Gonzales County; there secured horses, and accompanied by two deputy sheriffs of Gonzales County, including Deputy Swift, and other parties, went a few miles in the country to the Schnable ranch; and there learned that Cortez was at the home of Martin Roblero. He and his posse went to Roblero's. The posse divided as they approached the house from the north side; Glover and one or more companions going on the east side of the house around to the south side; and the other parties going on the west side around to the south side of the house. According to the Court, some of the testimony tends to show that the sheriff's posse shot first; but the preponderance of the evidence shows that Cortez and Bonafacio fired the first shot. Just before the time that the sheriff's posse arrived at the house, Cortez informed Bonafacio that the Sheriff's troop would be on his tail and asked him what he should do, whether to fight or surrender. Bonafacio would have said, "We will fight". Immediately upon Glover getting around to a point opposite the gallery on the south side of the house, Cortez and Bonafacio Roblero (the Roblero's eldest son), who were in the gallery, allegedly fired upon Glover and killed him. There was a general fusillade of shots on the part of the posse and Cortez and Bonafacio. On the other hand, in his testimony, Cortez asserts that the officers came up and immediately fired upon him; that he returned this fire.[10]

The San-Antonio Express called the Battle of Belmont, as it came to be known, “a tale of bravery unsurpassed on the part of the officers and of desperation on the part of the Mexicans.”. According to this version of the story, Cortez was waiting in ambush, and as Sheriff Glover and Posseman Schnabel approached, he opened fire. Sheriff Glover and Posseman Schnabel were killed[11]

The actual story, according to the scholar Américo Paredes, was less heroic. Just hours after Cortez arrived at the ranch, Glover and his posse had surrounded the house and began to attack. Cortez fired at Glover, who fell dead, and Cortez ran into the brush behind the house to hide. Robledo, his eldest son, and Sandoval were involved in the shooting, while Robledo's wife, his two younger sons and Ramón Rodríguez stayed unarmed inside the house. Shots were exchanged and Ramón Rodríguez was wounded, as well as Robledo’s wife. Another member of the posse shot and killed accidentally his companion, Henry Schnabel. In the end, the posse captured five of the Mexicans, including the two wounded. Cortez, however, escaped.[12]