Texas Almanac, 1941-1942 Page: 47
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HISTORY OF TEXAS. 47
eled to San Antonio over the upper road
and came to an agreement with Gover-
nor Martinez relative to the establish-
ment of the colony. This was in August,
1821, and Stephen F. Austin was in his
twenty-eighth year. On his return trip
to the United States he made a detour
through the territory lying between the
Colorado and Brazos below the San An-
tonio road and chose this as the site of
his colony.
He had been given permission to set-
tle 300 families and the terms were that
"each head of a family and each single
man would be granted 640 acres with 320
additional acres allowed for a wife and
160 acres for each child and 80 acres for
each slave." Austin was to receive 12 c
an acre from each settler, with which he
was to attend to the details of survey-
ing, perfecting titles and advertising the
enterprise in the United States. First
settlements were made late in 1821 at
Columbus on the Colorado and Wash-
ington-on-the-Brazos.
In the meantime the separation of
Mexico from Spain deprived the project
of legal status and Austin made a hur-
ried trip to Mexico City to close a deal
with the new central government. There
he found little but confusion. Beside
the struggle between the adherents of
republican and monarchical forms of
government he found the National Con-
gress deadlocked over establishment of
a general colonization policy. It was
soon after this act was passed, in Janu-
ary, 1823, that he was able to come to a
new agreement which confirmed his
grant.
Empresario System.
Under the new law the government
contracted with empresarios or agents
for the introduction of families. Under
the law the empresario could obtain
grants on contracts for introducing no
fewer than 200 families of colonists. He
was given wide authority over his colo-
nists in the matters of establishing com-
mercial centers, maintenance of militia
and administering justice. It was this
empresario system under which the col-
onization of Texas made extraordinary
strides during the next decade.
Austin's colony grew rapidly and San
Felipe de Austin was laid out on the
Brazos as the seat of government in the
colony.
First 300 Families.
Austin's first grant was for 300 fam-
ilies. This quota-known as "the First
Three Hundred," and having a place in
Texas history somewhat similar to that
of the Jamestown and Plymouth settlers
in United States history, was soon filled
and Austin was given new grants, and
the bounds of his colony extended. More
than 1,000 land titles were issued to Aus-
tin in the next decade and population of
his colony grew to upwards of 5,000.
Under the empresario system of colo-
nization, by which an agent contracted
with the government for settlement and
management of a tract of land, coloniza-
tions of Texas proceeded rapidly, anda number of grants were made to other
Americans.
Other Empresarios.
Austin was the most successful of the
empresarios, but there were a number of
others that were fairly successful. Green
De Witt, also of Missouri, obtained a
grant and introduced several hundred
families west of the Colorado, founding
the town of Gonzales in 1825. Another
empresario was Hayden Edwards who re-
ceived a grant for the settling of 800
families around Nacogdoches. Other
American empresarios were Benjamin
Milam, Gen. James Wilkinson, Sterling
Clack Robertson, Joseph Vehlin, Robert
Leftwich, David Burnet and the firms of
McMullen and McGloin and Power and
Hewitson. There were also several Mex-
ican empresarios, notably Martin De
Leon who settled a number of famil:s on
the Guadalupe, founding Guadalupe-Vic-
toria, the present Victoria. Lorenzo de
Zavala was another Mexican empresario
who was to play an important part in
the later history of Texas.
Although none of these enterprises was
as successful as that of the astute and
industrious Austin, there was rapid
growth of population and by 1836 Texas
had probably 35,000 to 50,000 white in-
habitants.
THE TEXAS REVOLUTION.
The swift course of events between
1821 and 1836 which brought, first, a
flood of Anglo-American irmilgration
pouring into Texas with approval of
Mexican authorities, and then precipi-
tated revolt which threw off Mexican
sovereignty, has raised an issue among
historians, and the good faith of the
American colonists in Texas has not al-
ways been permitted to go without ques-
tion.
The Texas Revolution came, in the
light of usual historical development,
rather naturally and logically. The Tex-
as of that day was a land of indefinite
boundaries on the border line between
Latin and Anglo-Americans. The thing
that many historians overlook when dis-
cussing the merits of Texas' case is the
fact that Mexico itself had only recently
thrown off its Spanish yoke, and, min its
new-found independence, entered a pe-
riod of confusion with few parallels.
Mexican history of the 1821-36 period
was a series of revolutions which made
consistent policy in any matter impos-
sible. The matter of a colonial policy in
Texas was a political issue among the
warring factions at the Mexican seat of
government.
Furthermore, Texas was geographical-
ly isolated from the center of Mexican
commercial and political control. Mexico
City was 800 miles distant from Texas
and a vast wilderness lay between the
latter and the nearest Mexican cities of
importance. On the other hand, it was
easy to direct Texas commerce toward
the near-by and friendly United States,
either overland or through the conven-
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Texas Almanac, 1941-1942, book, 1941; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117164/m1/49/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.