The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955 Page: 448
650 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
No doubt to avoid confusing the two settlements called de la
Nuestra Sefiora del Refugio, the one on the Rio Grande at the
present site of Matamoros, and the other on the site of the Texas
mission of that name, the author insists in referring to the Rio
Grande settlement as "Matamoros" for periods of twelve to twenty
years before it bore that name. This may be confusing, too.
The very brilliance of the author's handling of his story of
James Power and his Wexford colonists results in a sense of un-
balance in his treatment of the other "Texas Irish Empresarios"
and their colonies-John McMullen and James McGloin-who,
with their colonists, founded San Patricio, and Power's partner,
Dr. James Hewetson, and those of the Refugio colonists who were
not of the Wexford group. These are all accorded conscientious
treatment, well grounded in competent research, but theirs were
not the stories the author had in mind to tell. According them
balanced treatment would have compelled a new approach.
Though Texans have always considered Refugio and San Patricio
the "Irish Colonies," these, with De Leon's colony at Victoria,
were all more properly "Irish and Mexican colonies," of which
there were three rather than two. Victoria was "Irish and Mex-
ican," too. Much of this "Irish and Mexican" story turns on con-
flicting claims and interests among the three groups of empresarios
involved. The author had accorded these conflicts excellent treat-
ment, in so far as official documents allow; but, like the story of
Power and his Wexford colonists, interrelations among the three
sets of empresarios and their colonists are redolent with human
interest which, in the nature of the case, official documents do not
record. The human stories of McMullen and McGloin and James
Hewetson, and of De Leon's Victoria and its "Street of the Ten
Friends," remain to be told.
HARBERT DAVENPORT
Bosque County, Texas. By William C. Pool. San Marcos (San
Marcos Record Press), 1954. Pp. 74. $.oo00.
This little volume is a timely history of a ranch and agricul-
tural Central Texas county which experienced dangers from
Indian raids for the first quarter century, a steady growth in pop-
ulation for the first six decades, and a population decline of thirty-
seven per cent in the past forty years. The first white settlers448
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 58, July 1954 - April, 1955, periodical, 1955; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101158/m1/517/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.