The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 99, July 1995 - April, 1996 Page: 66
626 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
of Tamaulipas, with Conditions for Colony Membership, etc.). Contain-
ing a total of only twenty-two pages, a third of Wilder's booklet is devot-
ed to reproducing in Spanish and German Racknitz's colonization
contract. In the remaining pages, he describes very concisely and factu-
ally the geography of the colony lands, the economic, social, and politi-
cal advantages for Germans who might want to join Racknitz's colony,
and finally, some general conditions for joining the colony and rules of
conduct for the colonists. As Wilder himself frequently acknowledges,
most of the information in the booklet was written by Racknitz, who in
this and subsequent booklets presents a fairly accurate and unembell-
ished picture of the geography of the region and of the life that a
prospective colonist might expect to achieve for himself with patience
and hard work.
Unfortunately, Hans Wilder was only moderately successful in attract-
ing and organizing emigrants for Racknitz's colony, for fate itself
seemed to be set against this German empresario. For the next four
years, from 1835 to 1839, his and Wilder's efforts to attract German em-
igrant families for a "Little Germany" in Tamaulipas were frustrated first
by Mexico's own internal political struggles, then by the war with Texas,
which contested Mexico's dominion over the area of Racknitz's grant,
and finally by Mexico's war with France. Reports about the political tur-
moil in Mexico appeared almost every other week in the major German
newspapers. During the year 1836, for example, the Schwdibischer Merkur
published no less than thirty-one reports about the current war between
Mexico and Texas.60 However, in spite of the political, geographical, and
even cultural obstacles to attracting emigrants for a colony in northern
Mexico, Wilder was nevertheless able to organize two groups of German
emigrants for the trip to Racknitz's colony. Both groups left Bremen in
the year 1838 aboard chartered ships. The first ship was unable to enter
port at Matamoros because the French fleet was at the time blockading
Mexico's ports and had to return with all its passengers to New Orleans.
The second ship ran aground off the coast of Spain.61 The following
year, on May 28, 1839, Hans Wilder died.62
Shortly after the appearance of Wilder's booklet about the German
colony on the Nueces River, Racknitz also returned to Germany for a
6o Schwabischer Merkur (Stuttgart), Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 1836; see also Brigida Margarita von Mentz
de Boege, Mexico en el siglo XIX vmsto por los alemanes (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Au-
tonomo de Mexico, 1982), 203-223.
81 "Memorial," Mar. 27, 1849, Governors' Letters: Wood; Archivo de la... Colonizaci6n, vol.
307, p. 69.
62 V[ilhelm?] Richter (ed.), zoo Aars Dodsfald 1791-z89o (2 vols.; Kobenhavn: Milo'ske
Bogtrykkeri, 19o5), II, 1188.July
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 99, July 1995 - April, 1996, periodical, 1996; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101217/m1/94/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.