The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937 Page: 50
348 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
he appeared to have his eye on an Act of Incorporation which
would enable his colonists to receive patents to their claims and
The Texas Association to receive its premium of ten sections for
every hundred families settled. The number of colonists and stock-
holders had been augmented since the first semi-annual report.15
Rowlett forwarded the field notes of the external boundaries of the
Mercer colony to the Commissioner of the General Land Office16
and wrote Mercer that
the external boundaries of your grant have been run and
had been run at the passage of the Joint Resolution requiring
them to be run by April 1, 1845, from which you will see how
useless such legislation was if it had been constitutional.
In the same letter Rowlett mentioned the package of "blanks
of printing forms" for certificates to colonists and the letter from
Attorney General Allen "with the power of attorney." The set-
tlement on the east side of the Trinity near Kingston [Kings-
borough], he said, was increasing and the settlement, at the head
of which was Dr. Noble, had fifty families. Rowlett referred to
a settlement that had located west of the Trinity. It is probable
that this settlement consisted of Roderick Rawlins, his two sons
and five sons-in-law and their families, and their neighbors."
A note of courage and satisfaction with his new home, which
was located several miles southeast of Dallas, is seen in a letter
which Roderick Rawlins wrote. His letter follows:
Robertson County, Republic of Texas
March 16, 1845
Pleasant and Lydia Rawlins Greetings this is the first time
that I have undertaken to write to you or to any of our friends since
I left Illinois-from which you may understand that we are all
in good Health better far than we enjoyed in illinois and sincerely
hope these lines may find you all injoying like blessings-we had
"Second Semi-Annual Report to Secretary of State, January 17, 1845, in
the records of the case, Preston vs. Walsh.
"Rowlett to Ward, March 7, 1845. Letters Received, August, 1837, to
March, 1854. General Land Office.
"Rowlett to Mercer, March 9, 1845. Colonization Papers, 1843-1845.
Texas State Library.
"Roderick Rawlins, pioneer patriarch-preacher, was born March 11, 1776,
in Guilford County, North Carolina, and moved to East Tennessee in 1802,
where he married. When his wife died in 1805, he moved to Kentucky, and
on to Indiana Territory. On November 1, 1814, he married Millie Parks
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937, periodical, 1937; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101099/m1/58/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.