The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989 Page: 438
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
on November 19, 1832, on Middle Bayou in what later became Harris
County. Reconciled with his family, he left for Virginia in June, 1835,
to bring the remaining members to Texas, but died in Virginia before
he could return.
The town of Anahuac, founded in 1831, was first called Perry's Point
after the filibusterer Henry Perry, who camped with his men on the
thirty-foot bluff overlooking the mouth of the Trinity River in 1816.
John Davis Bradburn, a sergeant major with Perry, returned there on
October 26, 183o, as a colonel in the Mexican army. Here he founded a
town and a military post. On orders from General Manuel Mier y
Terin it was named Anahuac after the ancient capital of the Aztecs.4
A visitor to the new town of Anahuac in March of 1831 noted that it
had "fifteen or twenty log houses and huts, and seven poor shops ...
[and] a barracks . .. about one hundred and fifty feet long and twenty
feet wide" erected for the one hundred odd troops.5 Settlers flocked to
the town, and many believed that it offered prospects for commercial
gain. Merchant and physician Nicholas D. Labadie wrote to his nephew
in June, 1831, "Ten months ago there was not a soul here, now, by the
census taken the Ist inst. we rekon [sic] upwards of 300 besides 170 sol-
diers stationed here. Money is plenty with us. Each soldier receives
25 cents daily which he readily spends for liquor, bread &c." Labadie
encouraged his nephew to bring groceries, whiskey, clothing, shoes,
knives, dishes, and other commodities from New Orleans because he
was sure to realize a good profit.6
head count for Austin's colony is in the Texas State Archives (Texas State Library, Austin). The
pubhshed version was first compiled by Marion Day Mullins, "The First Census of Texas,
1829-1836," and under that inaccurate title was pubhshed by the National Genealogical So-
ciety in Washington, D.C., in 1959. The 1825 census for the District of Colorado was published
in Eugene C. Barker (ed.), The Austin Papers (3 vols.; Vols. I, II, Washington, D.C." Government
Printing Office, 1924-1928; Vol. III, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1927), I, 244. "The
Atascosita Census of 1826," edited by Mary McMillan Osburn, appeared in Texana, I (Fa 1,
1963), 229-321. The original is in the Library of Congress. A 1828 census of DeWitt's colo, y
from the Nacogdoches Archives was published in Ethel Zlvley Rather, "DeWitt's Colony," Qu 4'-
terly of the Texas State Historical Assoczation, VIII (Oct , 1904), 189-191. Other so-called census
lists exist, but they are compiled from various sources such as tax rolls, ships' passenger lists,
and land records and are not official censuses.
a Richard L. Gregg, "The William Dobie Survey, Harris County, Texas," Houston Archeological
Society Newsletter, LXVI (Mar., 1980), 22-30. Gregg has authenticated the handwritten script of
Willham Dobie in Texas by comparing it with Doble's writing in the Sussex County, Virginia,
surveyor's plat book.
4 Margaret Swett Henson,Juan Davis Bradburn: A Reappraisal of the Mexican Commander of Ana-
huac (College Station- Texas A&M University Press, 1982), 26-28.
5Anonymous, A Visit to Texas zn I83 . . (3rd edition, Houston: Cordovan Press, 1975), 6o
(quotation), 61.
6Nicholas D. Labadie to Anthony Lagrove, June 14, 1831, Dr. Nicholas D. Labadie Papers
(Rosenberg Library, Galveston). The 1831 census mentioned by Labadie has not been found,
but it may be in the Mexican Military Archives (Mexico City).438
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 92, July 1988 - April, 1989, periodical, 1989; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101212/m1/492/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.