YANAGUANA SOCIETY. The Yanaguana Society was founded in San Antonio on September 11, 1933, by Frederick C. Chabot, Frost Woodhull, Harry Hertzburg, William Aubrey, and Mary Frances Norton. The purpose of the society was to encourage historical research into the earliest records of San Antonio, especially those prior to 1855; to foster the preservation of manuscripts, documents, and relics; to encourage the publication of authentic and documental records of individual service of pioneers; to identify historic spots in San Antonio; and to encourage the publication of documentary records of the history of those landmarks. "Yanaguana" was the Payaya Indian name for the tribe's village, at the site of present San Antonio, when the Spanish expedition under the first governor, Domingo Terán de los RÃos, arrived in June 1691, accompanied by Fray Damián Massanet. The society published the following books: Carlos E. Castañeda, A Report on the Spanish Archives in San Antonio, Texas (1937); Antonio Menchaca, Memoirs (1937); Emil F. Wurzbach, Life and Memoirs of Emil Frederick Wurzbach (1937); Frederick C. Chabot, With the Makers of San Antonio (1937); Texas Letters (1940); Texas in 1811 (1941); and Thomas Stuart McFarland, McFarland Journal (1942). The society was dissolved in 1947, and the articles of dissolution were filed with the secretary of state on May 23 of that year. Minutes, membership records, books, and thirteen paintings by J. L. Théodore Gentilz were given to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and are now in the DRT library on the Alamo grounds.
