The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979 Page: 142
496 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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142
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
as far as Puebla, where President Bustamante's forces opposed him un-
der Generals Gabriel Valencia and Santa Anna. Mexia and Urrea, badly
outnumbered, were defeated in a grim and bloody battle lasting more
than five hours. Urrea escaped. Mexia, however, was captured after get-
ting away from the battlefield. On May 3, 1839, he was executed by
order of General Santa Anna.54
From the time General Mexia first began to appear on the historical
scene in 1822 until his death in 1839 he was concerned with Texas. Be-
ginning as an empresario who sought to attract colonists, he soon ac-
quired large tracts of Texas land in the names of his children.5 Later he
became an agent of the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company and
played a significant part in annulling the law of April 6, 1830, which
blocked Americans from settling in Texas. In spite of the danger of los-
ing his lands, however, he refused to join with the Texans when they de-
cided to fight for independence from Mexico. South of the Rio Grande
he is still considered a traitor. North of it he is barely remembered.
54El Cosmopolita (Mexico City), Jan. 16, 1839; W. D. Jones to Department of State,
Consular Letters, Mexico, May 11, 1839, Justin Smith Papers (BLAC). For an account of
the Urrea-Mexia expedition see: David M. Vigness, "La Expedici6n Urrea-Mejia," Historia
Mexicana, V (Oct.-Dec., 1955), 211-219. Carlos Maria Bustamante wrote an account of the
battle of Acajete and Mexia's death in El Gabinete Mexicano . . .(2 vols.; Mexico City,
1842), I, 180-184. This was reproduced by Castillo Negrete in his Mdxico en el siglo xix,
XXI, 24-31.
55Charlotte Mexia was apparently living in New Orleans when General Mexia died on
May 3, 1839. At some time later that year she traveled to Mexico City with her children
Maria Adelaida Matilda, who was 13, and Enrique Guillermo Antonio, who was 1o. Adolfo,
her first child, seems to have died earlier. Having settled her family affairs, Charlotte
brought her children back to New Orleans in December, 1844, to have them educated in the
United States. Nevertheless, the family seems to have resided largely in Mexico City, where,
on September 25, 1864, Charlotte died of typhus. By April 8, 1848, Maria Adelaida was
married to George Louis Hammeken, an American businessman of Danish extraction, who
by 1857 was described as the leading American merchant in Mexico City. Hammeken had
been a friend of Stephen F. Austin and wrote his well-known "Recollections of Stephen F.
Austin" in 1844. Enrique Guillermo Antonio fought against the French in the Mexican
army during the Maximilian intervention and rose to the rank of brigadier general. He
married Mary Gray, an American girl from New Jersey, in 1867. He moved to Limestone
County, Texas, as the agent of George Louis Hammeken to take care of the Hammekens'
properties and his own. The town of Mexia was laid out in 187o and named after him.
Enrique died in Mexico City on September 19, 1896, leaving 54,494 acres in Limestone,
Anderson, and Freestone counties, Texas, and additional land in McLennan County, Texas.
Seymour V. Connor and Virginia H. Taylor (eds.), Texas Treasury Papers (4 vols.; Austin,
1955-1956), III, 1o68-1o69; Mexia Family Papers, M-Bi, Part II, 318, 336; E. L. Plumb to
George F. Allen, Feb., 12, 1857, Plumb Papers (Stanford University, California); Hamme-
ken, Jorge L.," Diccionario Porra, Suplemento, (ist ed., Mexico, 1966), 174; George L.
Hammeken, "Recollections of Stephen F. Austin," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XX
(Apr., 1917), 369-380; Ray A. Walter, A History of Lzmestone County (Austin, 1959), 1o-11,
88-89; notes on Enrique Guillermo Antonio Mexia sent to the author by.the late Professor
Andrew Forest Muir.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979, periodical, 1978/1979; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101206/m1/178/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.