Between 1850 and 1860, Manuel, Enrique, and Francisco Esparza brought their families to settle in what is now Atascosa County. The brothers, along with their sister and mother, had been within the walls of the Alamo when it fell to the Mexicans in March 1836, where their father, Gregorio, died in the battle. Farming and ranching the open land near this site, Enrique and Manuel soon built a small chapel for family worship. In 1869, Enrique and his wife, Gertrudes, donated five acres to the Roman Catholic Church, and about the same time the Esparzas built a larger church of native stone named San Augustine. A storm damaged the church in 1940, services ended, and although it was not formally closed until 1942, by the late 1960s only three exterior rock walls remained before they too were razed. Settlements in Texas often grew from mission churches at river crossings or ranch headquarters, and places like San Augustine became an important part of the state's heritage.