[2] San Francisco Javier de Satevó was founded as a mission by the Jesuit missionary José Pascual in 1640.

[citation needed] Fidel Ávila, Governor of Chihuahua in 1914 and 1915, was born in San Francisco Javier de Satevó in 1875.

On 24 December 1918, General Francisco Villa, at the head of a column of some 900 men of the División del Norte, attacked San Francisco Javier de Satevó.

The settlement's defence, comprising 70 men under Pedro Alonso, refused to yield.

The Villistas gradually forced back the defenders into the parish church, to which they set fire before sacking the village.