The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 40, July 1936 - April, 1937 Page: 46

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

By the time Mercer had returned to Texas, July, 1844, his sub-
agents had encountered obstructions in surveying the boundaries
of his claim. According to his contract, the surveyors found that
his west boundary overlapped the east boundary of Peters' Colony
six miles. Mercer conceded the overlapping claims to Peters and
accepted Peters' eastern boundary, which had already been sur-
veyed, as the dividing line between their claims.5
Pillans wrote from Lexington, March 18, 1844, to the chief
clerk of the State Department that when he was in Franklin,
Robertson County, he found that the Mercer contract had been
forwarded to the County Surveyor without a name or attestation
attached and that the genuineness of the contract was denied by
the County Surveyor. Pillans requested the clerk to correct the
omissions.6 From Bonham, Pillans wrote Secretary of State Jones
that a dispute had arisen over the boundary of the Cherokee lands.
In view of the fact that the Mercer grant adjoined these lands, it
was "essential for his agent to know the precise bounds of said
lands." Pillans requested that the Secretary of State forward
"as early as practicable" the boundary of the Cherokee lands.7
To this letter the Secretary of State replied that the "books and
papers at Washington" failed to furnish the desired information
and that Pillans' letter had been transmitted to the Commissioner
of the General Land Office at Austin.8
In July, 1844, Rowlett informed the Commissioner of the Gen-
eral Land Office that the surveyors of Robertson County were
of "The Texas Association." Within the minutes are also found, according
to Miss Granman, the five semi-annual reports of the Chief Agent Charles
Fenton Mercer to the Chief Executive of Texas; the Bill of Rights and
the Constitution of the State of Texas; proclamations forbidding surveys
in frontier counties, and comments; notices to Emigrants of Terms of
Colonization; attack on the contract of B. T. Archer, and defence by
C. F. Mercer; resolutions and acts of the Texan Congress relating to the
colonization contracts of Mercer, H. Castro, and Fisher and Miller. Miss
Granman, in a letter to Mrs. Mattie Austin Hatcher, gave the Table of
Contents of "The Minutes of the Texas Association."
'Mercer to Jones, March 31, 1845. Colonization Papers, 1843-1845. Texas
State Library.
Pillans to Chief Clerk State Department, Washington, March 18, 1844.
Colonization Papers, 1843-1845. Texas State Library.
'Pillans to Secretary of State, May 27, 1844. Colonization Papers, 1843-
1845. Texas State Library.
"Secretary of State to Maj. P. J. Pillans, July 4, 1844. (copy.) Coloni-
zation Papers, 1843-1845. Texas State Library.