The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977 Page: 183
492 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
this province altogether. When Mexico gained its independence, it pro-
moted precisely the opposite policy. The central government of the state
made agreements with individual contractors to the effect that the con-
tractors, called "empresarios," who selected certain areas of land, obligated
themselves to settle a fixed number of families by an appointed time.-
The italicized phrase should be read twice.-By 1830 a large portion of
Texas was disposed of, and by I840 the contracts of the empresarios came
to an end. Only Castro's grant for French immigrants was extended, and
Henry Fisher and Burkard Miller were given a new concession on the upper
Colorado River on September 30, 1843. Both of these grants were ex-
tended to 1848. The Fisher-Miller grant 48 or concession was taken over by
the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, called in
short [form] the Mainz Society, The Society of Nobles, or The Society of
Princes. The Texans' fight for freedom, their declaration of independence,
and their joining the United States of America caused no discontinuance
of these concessions. On the contrary, Fisher even obtained permission
from the legislature for the Mainz Society to bring in six thousand instead
of six hundred families. The Society had granted Fisher and Miller one-
third of the net profit.
For each family the Society received one section (one English square
mile, or 640 acres) of land and, in addition, a land premium of i o percent.
In other words, if the Society had brought in six thousand families within
the appointed time, it could have been in control of 3,840,00o acres, and
would have had an additional 384,000 acres for its trouble. So the specula-
tion was not bad. For six hundred Florins [$24o] a person was transported
and received 320 acres while the Society received 640 acres and the ro
percent in addition. However, things turned out differently. As a result of
the proposition made by the Society, thousands of people applied to seek
their fortune in Texas. They paid the required sums and were transported
to Indian Point. But in spite of the bad weather and the burning heat of
the sun, they had to stay here more than half a year. Mr. von Meusebach,4"
who was in charge of the affairs in the name of the Society, did not want
to pay the sums demanded by the teamsters, and many of the wagons that
47Actually most of the settlers were German-speaking people from Alsace in eastern
France. See also the August 2 (evening) and 4 entries and notes 113, 115.
48The Fisher-Miller grant was a vast wedge of territory between the upper Colorado
and the Llano rivers, stretching far into West Texas. Henry Francis Fisher and Burchard
Miller sold an interest in this land to the Society. This is the matter discussed by
Steinert here. For fuller information see Biesele, German Settlements, 41, 76-82; King,
Meusebach, 185; Jordan, German Seed, 41-45, 188-189. Fisher was a native of Kassel,
Electoral Hesse, Germany, who came to Texas in I838. King, Meusebach, 34.
49See the June 18 entry and note 64 on Meusebach.I83
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 80, July 1976 - April, 1977, periodical, 1976/1977; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101204/m1/215/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.