The Junior Historian, Volume 25, Number 5, March 1965 Page: 2
32 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
contract with the King of Spain granted
him all the lands originally given to Garay
and later to Guzman and Narviez, it is
quite possible that under the leadership
of Moscoso or another, the De Soto ex-
pedition did visit Sabine at this early date.
History also records that Rivera's plan
for establishment of settlements in Texas
in the early 1700's selected the mouth of
the Sabinas River as an ideal site, espe-
cially since it had the water facilities of
accommodating large vessels. The Span-
ish, however, never made any real at-
tempt to colonize the territory.
As the Sabine area abounded in game,
trappers and traders made their way into
the region as soon as New Orleans was
founded by the French about 1718. Ac-
cording to Father Juan Agustin Morfi,
French and English trappers invaded the
Sabine area and did business with the
Indians found there. To protect the ter-
ritory from these intrusions, the Spanish
established a presidio in 1756, about
three miles from the mouth of the Trinity
River. They named the mission Nuestra
Sefiora de la Luz del Orcoquisac. Re-
gardless of what measures that Spain took
to protect Sabine from invaders, records
show that the American Fur Company
was doing a brisk trade as late as 1818.
From these historical items it can be seen
that Sabine Pass and its vicinity played
an important part in the early history of
Texas.
The first real attempt to colonize the
Sabine Pass area was made by the em-
presario, Lorenzo de Zavala, who con-
tracted in March, 1829, under the Coa-
huila and Texas Law to introduce five
hundred families into the Sabine area.
This territory included the boundary re-
serve between Joseph Vehlein's grant to
the west, and David Burnet's grant north
of Vehlein's. Lack of capital, however,
forced Vehlein to combine his grant with
those of Zavala and Burnet, and on Oc-
tober 16, 1830, the three empresarios
transferred their grants to the Galveston
Bay and Texas Land Company. This
company began to colonize Sabine on thelargest scale of any of the other empre-
sarios. In 1836, Texas declared its inde-
pendence from Mexico, set up its own
republic, and ordered the issuance of all
land titles to cease.
Up to this date the Galveston Bay
Company had not received its premium
lands for the families it had introduced.
Contrary to what people thought, Zavala
did not own the land, but only sold land
and was paid in premiums. Consequently,
the colonists found themselves without
prospect of either land or titles. To re-
cover its losses, the Galveston Bay Com-
pany employed John T. Mason, as agent,
who in turn employed Sam Houston as
attorney for the company. When Sam
Houston became President of the Repub-
lic, his legal status with the company
ceased. On June 12, 1837, the Texas
Republic passed a law allowing empre-
sarios to file suit against the President of
the Republic in order to establish its
claims, providing that neither aliens nor
assignees should benefit by the law. The
company then appointed Robert Rose to
sue in its name. The suit was tried in
1848, but the decision laid down was to
the effect that Rose was an assignee of
aliens and, therefore, could not sue. This
court decision was the death sentence of
the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Com-
pany and it went out of existence.
In 1839, prominent Texans were inter-
ested in the promotion of Sabine, among
them were Sam Houston and Philip Sub-
lett. An agreement between these two men
can be found in the Jefferson County
Deed Records which states that they were
owners of a certain tract of land upon the
Sabine River at the Pass. The agency of
the proprietors was given to Niles Smith
with the right to sell the lots which had
been divided into 2,060 parts. This agree-
ment was dated January 14, 1839. The
stock issued by Smith was sold for $250
and entitled the holder to the "two thou-
sandth part of the City of Sabine, Repub-
lic of Texas." The document further stated
that "by presenting the same to the agent
of the company the bearer should draw2
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 25, Number 5, March 1965, periodical, March 1965; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391457/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.