Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 35 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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28
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
action was short but furious. The Indians, evi
as
dently expecting to surprise and slaughter the L:
party while asleep, left nine warriors dead on the m
ground. But the victors paid dearly for the fr
triumph; they lost three killed, McCrummins, cl
Weathers and Jones, and Thompson was slightly su
wounded. They buried the dead on the 28th and ar
remained on the ground till the 29th. The country in
over which this party carried the compass and rE
chain, between June 27th and October 30th, 1833,
measuring on the ground about eighteen hundred iz
miles, covers about the western half of the present eL
misnamed Texas Panhandle, the eastern portion p
(or a strip thereof) of the present New Mexico, Y
the western portion of "No Man's Land," and ti
south of the Panhandle to latitude 32. The e
initial or southeast corner (the intersection of t
longitude 102 with latitude 32), judging by our c
present maps, was in the vicinity of the present I
town of Midland, on the Texas and Pacific Railway, l1
but Le Grand's observations must necessarily have 1
been imperfect and fixed the point erroneously. It c
was, however, sixteen miles south of what he called t
throughout the "Red river of Texas," meaning i
the Colorado or Pasigono, while he designates as ]
"Red river" the stream still so called. This I
large territory is now settled and being settled by
stock raisers, with a decided tendency towards
farming pursuits. The writer of this, through the
press of Texas, ever since 1872, has contended that
in due time Northwest Texas, from the Pacific
road to latitude 36 30', notwithstanding considerable
districts of worthless land, would become
the seat of an independent and robust agricultural
population. It is now being verified.
BEALES COLONY ON THE RIO GRANDE.
Dr. Beales secured in his own name a right to
settle a colony extending from the Nueces to the
Rio Grande and lying above the road from San
Antonio to Laredo. Next above, extending north
to latitude 32 , was a similar privilege granted to
John L. Woodbury, which expired, as did similar
concessions to Dr. James Grant, a Scotchman
naturalized and married in Mexico (the same who
was killed by the Mexican army on its march to
Texas, in February, 1836, in what is known as the
Johnson and Grant expedition, beyond the Nueces
river), and various others. Dr. Beales entered
into some sort of partnership with Grant for
settling colonists on the Rio Grande and Nueces'
tract, and then, with Grant's approval, while retaining
his official position as empresario, or contractor
with the State, formed in New York ansociation styled the "Rio Grande and Texas
and Company," for the purpose of raising
eans to encourage immigration to the colony
om France, Ireland, England and Germany, inuding
also Americans. Mr. Egerton, an English
Irveyor, was sent out first to examine the lands
nd select a site for locating a town, and the first
amigrants. He performed that service and
eturned to New York in the summer of 1833.
The Rio Grande and Texas Land Company organzed
on a basis of capital " divided into 800 shares,
ach containing ten thousand acres, besides surlus
lands." Certificate No. 407, issued in New
fork, July 11, 1834, signed, Isaac A. Johnson,
rustee; Samuel Sawyer, secretary, and J. C. Beales,
mpresario, with a miniature map of the lands, was
ransmitted to me as a present or memento, as the
;ase might be, in the year 1874, by my relative,
Ion. Wm. Jessop Ward, of Baltimore, and now
ies before me. As a matter of fact, Beales,
ike all other empresarios under the Mexican
colonization laws, contracted or got permission
to introduce a specified number of immigrants (800
in this case) and was to receive a given amount of
premium land in fee simple to himself for each
hundred families so introduced. Otherwise he had
no right to or interest in the lands, and all lands
not taken up by immigrants as headrights, or
awarded him as premiums within a certain term of
years from the date of the contract, remained, as
before, public domain of the State. Hence the
habit generally adopted by writers and map-makers
of styling these districts of country "grants" to
A., B. or C. was and ever has been a misnomer.
They were in reality only permits.
The first, and so far as known or believed, the
only body of immigrants introduced by Dr. Beales,
sailed with him from New York, in the schooner
Amos Wright, Capt. Monroe, November 11th, 1833.
The party consisted of fifty-nine souls, men, women
and children, but how many of each class cannot be
stated.
On the 6th of December, 1833, the Amos Wright
entered Aransas bay, finding nine feet of water
on the bar; on the 12th they disembarked and
pitched their tents on the beach at Copano and
there remained till January 3, 1834, finding there
only a Mexican coast-guard consisting of a corporal
and two men. On the 15th of December Don Jose
Maria Cosio, collector of customs, came down from
Goliad (the ancient La Bahia), and passed their
papers and goods as correct and was both courteous
and kind. Throughout the remainder of December,
January and February there were rapidly succeeding
wet and cold northers, indicating one of the
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/35/?rotate=270: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .