Spanish Colonial Era In his book
Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas, Father Gaspar de San Agustín records what is now San Mateo in 1572 to be a satellite settlement of
Pasig. He described the inhabitants being “fierce but friendly and of quiet disposition.” Father Juan de Medina, in his account
Relación de los Conventos Y Pueblos Fundados por los PP. Agustinos likewise put 1572 as the year the Parish of San Mateo was established. However, according to
Miguel López de Legazpi, the first
governor-general of the Philippines from 1571 to 1572, it was his nephew
Juan de Salcedo who arrived at the site of the town during an expedition to
Manila from
Cebu. Accounts say that two years prior, Legazpi sent Salcedo along with 150 soldiers to prepare the inauguration of the City of Manila. It must have been Salcedo who discovered the town before Legazpi inaugurated Manila on 24 June 1571. Still, another account was that of a certain Augustinian named Father Cavada, who said that the first chapel in the islands with
Saint Matthew as patron was built by the riverside in 1596 south of the present
Población of the town, which was then only a
Barrio of
Tondo. Saint Matthew thus gave the town his name as the chapel was built on his feast day. What may be gleaned from the above accounts somehow is that San Mateo was discovered sometime in 1571, while its first church was built in 1596. It may be true, too, that the Parish of San Mateo was erected in 1572. Aside from the disagreement over the town's precise foundation date, there is uncertainty as to how San Mateo acquired its name. According to one account, when the Spaniards made a
reconnaissance of Manila's environs, they saw the San Mateo floodplains and were enamored by the natural beauty of the place. They decided to found a community there and one day, a Spanish scribe happened to stand on a mound with a book in one hand and a pen in the other. His statuesque pose prompted a companion to laugh and comment how the scribe resembled Saint Matthew, referring to the usual manner the
evangelist is depicted in art. In the midst of their banter and merriment, they decided to call the place “
San Mateo”. Another account says that San Mateo was named for its geographical resemblance to another town in Spain of the same name. As described by Paluzie in a geographical book, this small Spanish town is near a high mountain (and) has a river that flowed through its center, which often floods but quickly recedes. The town is also a grazing pasture for big animals and a fishing village. The present San Mateo is traversed by the Maly and Nangka rivers and its flood plains may have been a lush grazing area then. The Augustinian priests in San Mateo were later formally replaced (in 1689) by the
Jesuits, who as early as 1637 included San Mateo among their missions, with the missions of San Isidro and Paynaan under it. The Jesuits brought with them an image of the
Virgin Mary which came from the Spanish town of
Arantzazu in
Vizcaya. They were the ones responsible for building the church now located in the Población since the original chapel by the Augustinians beside the river was destroyed in a flood. The location of the present church is in Barangay Santa Ana and its patron saint is Our Lady of Aranzazu. The original image of Saint Matthew, which was housed in the destroyed Augustinian chapel, was
translated to Barangay Dulongbayan (formerly llaya), where it was enshrined as patron of the village, which still keeps his feast on 21 September. In the following centuries, San Mateo had a colorful and distinguished history. In 1639, a pitched battle ensued between Chinese rebels on one side and combined Spanish and native troops on the other. The Chinese were defeated and retreated east to the
Sierra Madre Mountains, but not before burning the town and its church. On 16 May 1687, the territory and convent of San Mateo were added to
Pasig by the Augustinians, with the headquarters and residences of the mission at
Mariquina (
Marikina). Two years later, the Augustinians handed over the ecclesiastical administration of San Mateo to the Jesuits. In 1699, the convent of
Saint Augustine won a court case against native inhabitants with regard to a claim over a ranch in the district of San Mateo. From 1696 to 1746, residents rebelled against Spanish authority in the town. They fled to the mountains and abandoned the lowland settlement until 1746, when they returned following dialogue and persuasion by the Jesuits. The independent-mindedness of the San Mateo people showed itself again in the 15-year period from 1751 to 1765 when they rebelled against Spanish rule. The residents were ordered to surrender their weapons, but they refused. With this resistance, the Spanish government was forced to reduce the town to ruins. In 1712, the governor-general, the Conde de Lizarriaga, sent Captain Don Lorenzo de Yturriaga together with twelve soldiers to punish Captain Pambila, a native chieftain who was reportedly inciting the residents to revolt against Spanish colonial authorities and the local Spanish priest. Captain Pambila attacked the Spanish officer, but the latter was able to parry the blow and shoot the native leader dead. When municipal governance was instituted by the Spaniards in San Mateo in 1799, the town was governed by a
Gobernadorcillo who served for one year and exercised the power to appoint the
Cabeza de Barangay for the same term of one year. However, there were instances when the Governadorcillo served for two or three years. The first resident appointed to the post of Governadorcillo in 1799 was Donato Sulit while the last one to hold the post in 1895 was one Ismael Amado Jr., who incidentally continued serving up to 1905 even after the establishment of the civil government under the Americans in 1901 when he was appointed
Capitán Municipal by the Military Governor of the United States Army Department. San Mateo was
partitioned on 27 April 1871, when Captain-General Isquierdo issued a decree separating the barrios of Balite, Burgos, Marang and Calipahan from San Mateo and formed them into the new municipality of
Montalbán (Rodríguez). In the Spanish period, there was only one public school in San Mateo and the educational advancement of the youth was very slow. The books used were limited to the religious tracts called Eaton, Camia, Castiana, and the
Doctrina Christiana. After knowing how to read, most students quit school while the few wealthy enrolled in Catholic schools in
Manila.
Philippine Revolution On 23 August 1896, the
Philippine Revolution began after the
Cry of Pugad Lawin when
Andrés Bonifacio and the
Katipuneros began the tearing of cédulas in defiance to Spanish rule. On 2 November, San Mateo would fall under the revolutionary forces led by Bonifacio, capturing the municipal hall and besieging the Spanish garrison in the town. Three days later, Bonifacio would be pushed back to Montalban, and the besieged Spanish garrison would be relieved by reinforcements from Manila. The same month, General
Mariano Llanera made San Mateo his headquarters. By 6 August 1898, San Mateo joined the revolutionary government of General
Emilio Aguinaldo. During the succeeding
Philippine–American War, General
Licerio Gerónimo's guerrilla bands from the foothills of San Mateo and Montalbán attacked American troops in October 1900. However, the Filipinos were defeated. A curious twist of history occurred when during the fighting, Gen.
Henry Ware Lawton–who had captured the elusive
Apache leader
Geronimo–was in turn killed by a sharpshooter under Gen. Gerónimo. In the eyes of the Filipino people, Gen. Geronimo became a great man for killing an illustrious American general who distinguished himself during the
American Civil War and the American military campaign in
Cuba as well as in northern, southern and central
Luzon. During the
American Occupation, Act No. 137 of the
Philippine Commission incorporated San Mateo, previously part of the
Province of Manila, into the newly created
Province of Rizal on 11 June 1901. In line with its policy of fiscal economy and centralized governance, the Philippine Commission also enacted Act No. 942 in 1903 which merged the towns of San Mateo and Montalbán, with the former serving as the seat of government. On 29 February 1908, Executive Order No. 20 partitioned both, thus formalizing Montalbán's status as an independent municipality. Its real divisions then included the barrios of Ampid, Santa Ana, Guitnangbayan, Dulongbayan, Malanday, Guinayang and Maly. However, due to constant development of the rural areas and the increase in population, the barrios of Guitnangbayan and Dulongbayan were divided into two sections. With regard to education, it was in 1909 when public schools were opened in the country under the supervision of Dr. David Burrows. San Mateo became a recipient of the new, democratized education system when Mr. Frank Green was assigned as the town's first school supervisor, assisted by two Filipino teachers José Bernabé and Miguel Cristi. The English language was also taught in the public school. Transportation and other facilities in the municipality were increased and repaired thus resulting to more communication and exchange of goods and services.
Japanese Occupation Era During the
Japanese occupation, the
Imperial Japanese Army occupied San Mateo, but no battle transpired between Japanese and Filipino forces. There were only minor encounters between the Japanese soldiers and members of the Filipino guerrilla forces. Nevertheless, some prominent residents of the town were killed and maltreated by the
Japanese military on suspicions that they were either
guerrillas or sympathizers. Upon their arrival in the municipality, the Japanese troops seized school buildings and several big houses for use as their headquarters. Productive ricelands irrigated by water from the main pipe of the Metropolitan Water District were also forcibly appropriated and tilled under the direct supervision of Japanese officials. Livestock and crops were confiscated to supply the Japanese military stationed in San Mateo and Montalban. When the American forces landed north of Manila on 3 February 1945 and started recapturing the surrounding areas, San Mateo came under the line of fire of the Liberation Forces and was continued with help of Filipino soldiers under the
Philippine Commonwealth Army and
Philippine Constabulary and local guerrillas. Residents were advised by the Air Raid Warden to vacate the Población and seek refuge in Sitio Kalamyong on the west bank of the
Marikina River. There, they built temporary shelters while the
U.S. Air Force conducted daily bombings on Japanese installations in Montalbán. However, one afternoon, a bomb on board an American Air Force plane was accidentally dropped on the refugee camp at Sitio Kalamyong, killing a hundred civilians. Although in the aftermath of the war the American government compensated the people of San Mateo for the war damages, there were cases when the amounts received were not considered commensurate with the sufferings endured.
Timeline Through
Presidential Proclamation 681, September 21, 2024 was declared a
special non-working day in San Mateo, to commemorate the town's 452nd founding anniversary. ==Geography==