Somewhere in The West- Josefa “Chipita” Rodriguez

A Hank of Hemp & a Needle

The Leakeay Star

November 5, 2011

In 1829, settlers began arriving to the new community of San Patricio, Texas. The Mexican government gave permission for this settlement in Texas in hopes of finding a place for 200 Irish Catholic families headed to the area. The original township was almost doomed from the beginning. The conflict between Texas and Mexico was brewing. In early 1836, the Battle of San Patricio would cause most of the inhabitants to flee to safer ground. The town remained empty until 1845 when General Zachary Taylor arrived. San Patricio then began to thrive as more settlers came to the area. The town became a stopping place and supply station for travelers along the Cotton Road.

But with prosperity comes the outlaws, saloons and traders of various sorts. Along with this group of people, we find the population of San Patricio trying to scratch out a living from these assorted people just passing through.

Josepha “Chipita” Rodriguez was born December 30, 1799, or there about, in Mexico. Her parents wanted a better life so they came north settling in what would eventually be Texas. Various stories circulate about the early life of Chipita. Some say that she married young and had a son and that her husband, a white trader, left taking her young son with him. Chipita never recovered from this tragedy and she always searched for her son in the faces of the travelers that stopped at her inn. Some stories and tales state the Juan Silvera may have been her son, too. Either way, Chipita had one or maybe two sons, one that she longed for and one that she tolerated.

Chipita, with the help of Juan, ran a small inn that offered food and a cot on her porch to weary travelers, gamblers and cowboys along the Cotton Road and near the Aransas River and close to the settlement of San Patricio. So it was one day in August of 1863 that the horse trader, John Savage, rode up to Chipita’s Inn, eager for a hot meal and a good night’s sleep. He probably kept his heavy saddle bags with him, making it obvious that he was carrying a large sum of money. Some say the Chipita was aware of the heavy saddlebags others say she didn’t care but all Chipita would say is, “No soy culpable.”

The next morning, Chipita noticed that John Savage was gone but just assumed that he arose to an early start and left the inn before sun up. A couple of days later, two ladies from the Welder Ranch were washing clothes in the river when they found a burlap bag floating down stream. They were a curious pair and managed to get the bag on shore. Little did they know that the burlap bag contained the hacked up remains of one horse trader, John Savage. While a short distance, further downriver someone spotted his saddle bags containing his $600 in gold.

Sheriff Means was not a tolerable fellow. It was his duty to investigate the case. Since the body was found so close to Chipita’s Inn, he was quick to assume that Savage had been hacked to death with the same ax that Chipita split her wood. Means did find blood on Chipita’s porch. No matter that Chipita said the blood was from a chicken she had butchered and again she said to no avail, “No soy culpable.”

Another story tells that Chipita saw the murder but that she thought the killer was her long lost son and would not tell because of a mother’s love. Chipita was as older woman at the time of the murder. Some say she was almost 90 years old while others say she was in her 60’s. Most of the facts after the murder become jumbled with tales of ghosts, fiction and judgments that were not fair. There were no CSI or trained inspectors during this time because if there were she would never had to say, “No soy culpable.”

The sheriff arrested Chipita and Juan on the spot. Their trial was speedy and questionable. Sheriff Means served on the Grand Jury, go figure. The trial jury consisted of people brought in from the street. Chipita did not or was not allowed to speak in her defense thus, she was charged with murder in the first degree. Juan was charged with murder in the second degree. Now the other twist comes into play. The jury urged Judge Benjamin F. Neal to give clemency to Chipita but the request fell on deaf ears as the ring of the gavel fell and he ordered that Chipita be hung from the neck until dead on Friday, November the 13th 1863. Again, she uttered, “No soy culpable.”

It appears that most of the case was circumstantial. There were no witnesses and since the recovery of body and the money, there really was no motive. Supporting documents of the trail burned in the courthouse in 1889. So a good imagination now is the best evidence one can find.

The people of San Patricio begged that the sentence not be carried out, but that fell on deaf ears too. They knew that matters convulated at best. The hangman had difficulty carrying out the sentence. Sheriff Means left town the day before the hanging. The hangman, John Gilpin, tried to borrow the wagon of Betty McCumber to transport Chipita to the river where the trees were suitable for a hanging. Betty refused the use of her new wagon but finally the hangman confiscated the wagon and her team of oxen. He then loaded the frail old Chipita into the wagon. She sat on her coffin smoking a corn husk cigarette, as the oxen team slowly transported her to the hanging tree while she whispered to anyone who would listen, “No soy culpable.”

On that Friday, November the 13th, the crowd gathered on the Wier ranch on the banks of the Nueces River. The people that came to witness the event became very quiet, some ladies cried and one fainted. The hangman slipped the noose around her neck and once again she quietly murmured, “No soy culpable.” Now everyone knows that the pace of oxen is slow and as they moved forward, the noose tightened very slowly. Chipita’s death was slow and sad. Her final words echoed, “No soy culpable."