The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 343
574 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Land Grants
sisting of three surviving veterans of the revolution was to be
appointed by the governor to pass upon each claim and certify
that it believed the applicant actually performed the service.
After such proof was presented, the Commissioner of the General
Land Office was authorized to issue the land certificate.3 These
certificates have printed on them the words, "Veteran Donation
Certificate," and the grants are classified in the Land Office as
Veteran Donations.'
The Veteran Donations were increased to 1280 acres by an act
approved March 15, 1881. Included in the act were the same ben-
eficiaries as in the 1879 act with the addition of the widows of
the men who fell in the Dawson Massacre. To qualify as a veteran
or widow of a veteran, the soldier must have served three months
from the beginning of the war in 1835 to January 1, 1837, and
received, or been entitled to receive, a bounty warrant. For Sign-
ers of the Declaration, of course, no military service was required.
A significant change from the 1879 act was made in the grant of
1881 and that was that the requirement that the recipients be
in indigent circumstances was dropped. The 1881 act also pro-
vided that those who, under the 1879 act, had already received
a 640 acre certificate, should receive another one of the same
amount of land.5
In studying the Veteran Donation Grants, the researcher does
not find any lack of material, as is the case in pursuing the earlier
grants where many of the records have been burned or destroyed.
The Veteran Donation certificates were all issued by the Commis-
sioner of the General Land Office and the stub-books, with one
exception, from which the certificates were issued, were pre-
served although stowed away in a warehouse. Each stub has an
abstract of the certificate issued. Before the certificate was torn
from the book, a criss-cross red line was drawn across the certifi-
cate and the stub. Later, when the certificate was returned to the
8Ibid., VII, 1475-1477.
4There was an earlier grant classed as donations which was made in December,
1837. This was 640 acre donation to the participants, or their heirs, in the siege
of Bexar, battle of San Jacinto, fall of the Alamo, battle of Coleto, and Goliad
massacre. To distinguish these 1837 donations from the Veteran Donations of 1879
and 1881 the writer has classed the earlier grants as "Battle Donations."
sGammel, IX, 127-128.343
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961, periodical, 1961; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101190/m1/378/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.