A brief history
 The
popular version of how Lanuza got its name was that in times
past when people walked the distance from
Cantilan
to Lanuza with mere banana leaves to protect their heads
from the scorching sun, by the time they reached Lanuza,
the banana leaves become “Lanos na” meaning “already withered”.
In due time, Lanos na was corrupted to become Lanuza.
However,
in one of the three sketches of old Cantilan area, known
as the Capanas Sketch of 1802, Lanuza was marked as Lanuyo.
Lanuyo encompassed a mountainous area to her west and southwest
with a big river and some tributaries or creeks and brooks
to her east and northeast. This sketch seemed to appear
a continuation to that of Cantilan’s though in a separate
sheet.
These was
“when a principalia of a certain sitio called Lanuyo requested
that their place be made into a full pledged barrio “Independence
De Su Matriz Cantilan” Schreur’s noted in 1802.
In Sitio
Lanuyo, there were settlements marked then that still found
today. Clearly identified are Dangiog (Danyog), Bobon, Cabacuan
(Cabachawan), Capadian (Capajian), Ganga and Libiug or Sibyog
as it was not legibly written. Libiug as indicated in the
sketch was the sentro from Cantilan going south. Understandably
these were the places asked by Lanuyo mere Sitio of Cantilan
in 1802 as termed by Schreur’s notation.
The crude
cartography of Capanas showed Lanuyo as a well developed
place among the riverine settlements or village of Cantilan
in 1802. Lanuyo had its own embarcadero and the sitio had
five streets parallel to the shoreline. Lanuyo’s embarcadero
certainly implied one thing: it was a landing place by either
local seamen or distant trader at the turn of the 1700’s.
Lanuyo for any reason, could be trading post of the early
southern places like Tandag, Marieta (Marihatag), or by
the people of Bislig, Hinatuan (San Juan), Lianga and Lingig
which was noted to have been transferred to Sitio Cagnito
only in 1860’s. The Lanuyo embarcadero could have also pointed
the way to Boholano immigrants of the 19th century, when
they disembarked and formed the first 20 cabecerias in Lanuza
recorded by the Jesuits of Cantilan in the 1880’s.
The Christianization
of the Mamanwas who settled in Danyog beyond Carmen and
Sibahay southward beyond Lanuza were practically the efforts
of the Jesuits from the time of Father Salvador Ferrer and
Juan Sansa. After their stay in Cantilan, they were replaced
by Father Miguel Alaix who was formerly of Bunawan, a Jesuit
Mission in Agusan. In Danyog, upon his assignment to Cantilan,
he baptized sixty four Mamanwas in Sibahay. These Mamanwas
were deemed the original inhabitants of Lanuza when it was
not yet a barrio.
Earlier,
the founding of Lanuza was reported by Father Ferrer who
said that there were merely twenty cabecerias which grew
rapidly because of the arrival of the Boholanos and Leyteno’s.
Father Ferrer and Sansa founded Lanuza within the time of
their arrival in Cantilan on October 19,1879.
During
the ebbing years of the Spanish regime in the Philippines,
Cantilan’s barrios of Lanuza and Carrascal were already
ripe for townhood, thus their conversions by the Spanish
authorities and the subsequent appointments of the town
officials.
On December
10,1918, EO No. 52 of American Governor Francis Burton Harrison
which was signed by Charles Yeater divided
Cantilan
into three parts. The barrios detached were Lanuza and Carrascal.
Lanuza with a bigger population than Carrascal that time
had Cantilan Andres Orcullo, with Donato Uriarte, Juez de
Paz; Guillermo Azarcon, Maestro de Ninos; Vicenta Orillaneda,
Maestra de Ninas; and Padre Manuel Villes, Cura Misionero.
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