Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 852 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
733
(Felipe), and he frequently received letters thus
addressed.
Austin and Bastrop now commenced the distribution
of lands and the issuance of titles. The
return of the Colonel had so strengthened the enterprise
that the three hundred families authorized
were duly settled. Upon the payment of the fees
established by the Mexican Commissioner, titles
were issued to the settlers. The whole expense on
a league of land only amounted to $165. The
lands selected were among the most productive in
the State, the immigrants being scattered from the
east bank of the Lavaca to the ridge dividing the
waters of the San Jacinto and Trinity rivers, and
from the old San Antonio road to the Gulf.
The greatest care was taken by Austin that the
titles for all his settlers should be duly perfected
under the Mexican law, and where immigrants were
too poor to pay the legal fees he generally paid
them himself, or procured credit for them from the
government. Without compensation, and with much
labor he, in conjunction with Mr. Samuel M. Williams,
whom he had appointed his private secretary,
in 1824, copied into a large bound register or record
book the land documents, title deeds, and decrees
relating to the colony. This record book,
together with his land papers, are now in the land
office at Austin. Austin's private papers, journals,
etc., a most valuable collection of historic
documents, are now in the possession of his nephew,
Hon. Guy M. Bryan, of Galveston. The machinery
for the civil government of the settlement was very
simple. By consent of the Governor, the colony
was divided into districts, each presided over by an
alcalde, or justice, elected by the settlers. To
these alcaldes Austin gave jurisdiction to $200,
with an appeal to him as judge of the colony on all
sums over $25. A code of provisional regulations
in civil and criminal matters was also drawn up by
him and approved by the Governor.
Stephen F. Austin was the first who ever obtained
permission to settle a colony in Texas; and,
in the language of President Burnet, he was " the
only empresario who fully carried out his contracts
with Mexico, and he labored sedulously in
doing so."
The colonization law of the State of Texas and
Coahuila, passed in 1825 in conformity with the
enactments of the national colonization law of 1824,
opened the vacant lands of Texas to all persons
who were desirous of becoming empresarios, or
contractors, for the settlement of bodies of immigrants,
and who would comply with the requirements
of the law. Under this general act grants
were made to many persons, among them Hayden,Edwards, Leftwich, DeWitt, Milam, Burnet, and
Vehlein. Colonies were thus started in various
parts of the State (but few of them introduced settlers,
and none of them completed their contracts
except DeWitt), and the Anglo-American population
increased. But Austin was not idle.
In 1825 he contracted to bring in 500 families, in
1827 one hundred families more, and in 1828 signed
a contract for three hundred families. By the general
act referred to above, all settlers who were
farmers were entitled to a labor of land, one hundred
and seventy-seven acres; all stock-raisers a
sitio, or square league; and the empressarios were
to receive as compensation, for each one hundred
families, five leagues and five labors.
The letter of the law required that "the new
settlers who present themselves for admission must
prove their Christianity, morality and good habits
by a certificate from the authorities where they
formerly resided." The State required for each
sitio or pasture land a payment of thirty dollars,
and for each labor two and a half or three and a
half dollars, according as the land was or was not
capable of irrigation. Unmarried men were only
allowed one fourth as much as married men were,
but at marriage their full share was made up to
them. And so as to encourage the more intimate
fusion of the new element with the old, the adventurous
foreigner who would wed a senorita of the
Mexican blood was compensated with an extra
fourth. Austin's last contract was made in the
name of Austin and Williams, in 1831, and embraced
eight hundred families.
The foundations of a great State were now laid,
and the career of the colony was one of uninterrupted
growth and prosperity in spite of the outbreaks
in 1827 and 1832. In 1827, in consequence
of what is known as the Fredonian War, the inhabitants
of Eastern Texas would have been expelled
from the country but for the earnest intervention of
Austin in their behalf, with the political chief,
Saucedo, who, after their leaders had retired beyond
the Sabine, permitted them to remain undisturbed
in their rights of person and property. In 1831
bodies of Mexican troops had been established at
several points in Texas, and Col. Bradburn, at
Anahuac (mouth of the Trinity), had arbitrarily
displaced civil authorities and appointed others,
and had imprisoned prominent citizens of that section,
threatening to send them to Mexico for trial.
This aroused the colonists, who captured all the
posts and soldiers east of San Antonio. Santa Anna
promptly dispatched Gen. Mexia with five armed vessels
and troops to "suppress the rebellion." Austin
was then attending the Legislature of Coahuila and
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/852/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.