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Note: Gilberto Botello Vasquez left Mexico for Texas in 1889. This is according to data in the 1900 US Federal Census where he was working as a cowboy near Huntsville in Walker County, Texas. Census statistics list him as single, 38 years old and able to read, write and speak English. Later census data records his age to be 10 years younger. That places some doubt that this census data is for our ancestor, but the recorded date of entry into the US is the same as the 1910 Census (1889) and his name is recorded as Gil, not Gilberto, which is seen in the later census data.
According to family lore, he left Mexico during the Mexican revolution, when many revolutionaries were killing or driving off owners of large haciendas. His hacienda and land holdings were comprised of 5000 hectares (about 12,500 acres) in or around Aguascalientes, Mexico. Fearing his life, Gilberto fled to Texas.
Later, when living in Bexar County, he was falsely accused of stealing a cow and was arrested and jailed. Somehow, he managed to escape. As he was being tracked down with dogs, he hid inside a dead cow. This deluded the dogs and he was not re-captured.
Gil and Manuela were probably married around 1902. The 1910 US Federal Census places him and Manuela in Guadalupe County, Texas, along with their first 3 sons, Marcos, Francisco and Lucas. Then, in 1920, according to the census, their family was living in Bowie County, Texas. At that time, a widowed niece of his, Elvira Vasquez, and her son Antonio Morales were also living with the family. The 1930 US Federal Census documents Manuela living in Bexar County, Texas with her children and a sister, Romana . Francisco and Tomasa had married by that time and no longer lived there. She is listed as widowed.
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