1833 map of Coahuila and Texas; Austin's Colony is the large pink area in the southeast.
The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was head of a household, or, in some cases, a partnership of unmarried men. Austin was an American approved in 1822 by Mexico as an empresario for this effort, after the nation had gained independence from Spain. By 1825 the colony had a population of 1,790, including 443 enslaved African Americans.[1] Because the Americans believed they needed enslaved workers, Austin negotiated with the Mexican government to gain approval, as the new nation was opposed to slavery. Mexico abolished it in 1837.
American Moses Austin was authorized as an empresario by Joaquín de Arredondo of Spain to create a colony of Americans in Texas, which was lightly populated, as a bulwark against the native Comanche people. Before this plan could be implemented, Moses Austin died in Missouri in 1821. That same year Mexico gained independence from Spain.[2]:17–18
Stephen F. Austin agreed to carry out his father's plan for a colony. At the end of the summer of 1821, he and a small group of Anglo-American settlers crossed into Texas. Before he reached San Antonio to meet with the governor, the group learned that Mexico had gained its independence from Spain. Texas was now a Mexican province rather than a Spanish one. Governor Martinez assured Austin that the new Mexican government would honor the colonization contract.[3]
Austin returned to Louisiana to recruit settlers. He offered land at 12 cents per acre, which was 10% of what comparable acreage sold for in the United States. The Settlers were required to satisfy four regulations:
They had to improve the land (usually by adding structures), and
They had to cultivate the land within two years, or forfeit it.
Settlers would pay no customs duties for seven years and would not be subject to taxation for ten years. In return, they were expected to become Mexican citizens.[4]
In March 1822, Austin learned that the new Mexican government had not ratified his father's land grant from Spain. He had to travel to Mexico City, 1,200 miles (1,931km) away, to get permission for his colony.[5] There, he discovered that the Mexican government was dedicated to equal rights for all races and opposed to slavery. (It abolished slavery in 1837.) Austin considered legal slavery critical to the success of his colony, so he spent a year in Mexico City lobbying against anti-slavery legislation. In 1823 he reached a compromise with the government of Agustín de Iturbide to allow slavery in Texas, with restrictions.[2]:20–23
The 1823 Imperial Colonization Law of Mexico allowed an empresario to receive a land grant within the Mexican province of Texas. The empresario and a commissioner appointed by the governor were authorized to distribute land to settlers and issue titles in the name of the Mexican government. Only one contract was ultimately approved under this legislation: the first contract granted to Stephen F. Austin.[6]
Establishment
Between 1823 and 1825, Austin granted 297 titles under this contract. Each head of household received a minimum of 177 acres[7] or 4,428 acres[8] depending on whether they intended to farm or raise livestock. The grant could be increased for large families or those wishing to establish a new industry, but the lands would be forfeited if they were not cultivated within two years.[6]
The settlers who received their titles under Stephen's first contract, known today as the Old Three Hundred, made up the first organized, approved group of Anglo-American immigrants from the United States to Texas. The new land titles were located in an area where no Spanish or Mexican settlements had existed. It covered land between the Brazos and the Colorado rivers, from the Gulf Coast to the San Antonio Road.[9] This area had long been occupied by indigenous peoples, however, and they objected to Anglo-American encroachment, resisting with armed conflict. Both Comanche and Apache warriors raided the new colony.
Austin wrote the colony's legal code, including elements to control enslaved African Americans. Any slave who left a plantation without permission was to be tied up and whipped. Considerable fines were to be assessed for any person helping or harboring a runaway slave.[2]:23–24
The capital of this new colony was San Felipe de Austin. This is now known as San Felipe in Austin County.
Growth
When Austin began advertising his colony, he received a great deal of interest. He was selective in his choice of colonists, which set it apart from others of the time. Austin chose settlers whom he believed would be appropriately industrious. Overall, Austin chose people who belonged to a higher economic class than most immigrants, and all brought some property with them. All but four of the men could read and write. This relatively high level of literacy had a great influence on the future of the colony. According to historian William C. Davis, because the colonists were literate, they "absorbed and spread the knowledge and news always essential to uniting people to a common purpose".[10]
Although Mexican law required immigrants to be Catholic, most of Austin's settlers were Protestant. Many chafed at being ruled by Catholics. Virtually all were of British ancestry.[1]
One-quarter of the families brought enslaved African Americans with them. Jared Groce brought 90 slaves, having had large plantations in the Southeast. According to historian Christopher Long, the Old Three Hundred "constituted the heart of the burgeoning slave empire in antebellum Texas."[1]
List
Lester G. Bugbee in his article "The Old Three Hundred", published in The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association (October 1897), identifies the head of each of the Old Three Hundred families who received a land grant in Austin's colony.[11] They were:
wife Elizabeth "Betsy" & children Lydia, Collins, Nepsey, Abel, Edward (Leander), Benjamin; one hired hand, seven servants; horses, mules, cattle, and farming utensils
In 1822, Beason (originally Beeson) began operating a ferry across the Colorado River. Beason also established a gristmill, gin, and a sawmill; his wife operated a boarding house. The settlement became known as Beason's Ferry or Beason's Crossing, later the site of the Texas Army camp under General Sam Houston. Following the Battle of the Alamo, Santa Anna's army headed for San Jacinto, and Sam Houston ordered that Beason's Crossing be burned during the Runaway Scrape. Beason's Crossing was officially renamed Columbus after the population returned In 1837. See Columbus, Texas.
Donated the land on which Bellville was founded in 1846
M. Berry
Isaac Best
1774
1837
Wife Mary Margaret (Wilkins), and some of their nine children.
After spending his early years in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, Best and his wife left Garrard County, Kentucky, and moved to Montgomery County in southern Missouri in 1808. There he built a mill and an outpost known as Best's Fort, which served as a refuge from Indian attacks during the War of 1812. The family and several slaves moved to Texas in 1824. On August 19 of that year, Best received title to a sitio ["site", in Spanish] east of the Brazos River in what is now Waller County. He increased his landholdings and built a home near the site of present Pattison. The 1826 census described Best as a farmer and stock raiser between forty and fifty years of age. His household consisted of his wife, three sons, two daughters, and four slaves. Best may have lived at San Felipe in 1833, when William B. Travis issued a subpoena for him as a witness in a case against Isaac Clower. Best died near Pattison in 1837. On August 21, 1974, the Texas Historical Commission dedicated a marker to him on Farm Road 1458 1½ miles west of Pattison."
Married 3 times. 3rd wife, Jane Mason Wilkins McCormick Duke. 6 children; Mary Francis, Charlotte Jane, Thomoas Marshall, Jr., John Marshall, Stephen Austin, Alice Imogin
Died, Hynes Bay, Refugio County, Texas during the yellow fever epidemic of 1867-Certified by Witnesses: Wm. Andrews, G. Seelingson, F. Hunt. Source: Daily Ranchero, September 1, 1867.
The plot of land now sits in modern Fort Bend County. Fitzgerald died in 1832 and willed the land to his daughter Sarah. She would later sell the entire property to Johnathan Dawson Waters.
Freeman George received 1 sitios land between San Bernard and Bay Prairie (Matagorda County) and 1 labor of land located Brazos East side opposite San Felipe (Waller County). According to the Handbook of Texas Online, he was given a league and a labor of land (see above) which is known as Matagorda and Waller counties on July 7, 1824. Also one of the original patentees in the vicinity of Old Ocean, Texas, in southwestern Brazoria Co.
Wife: Mary Martha Harbert; Children as of March 1826: Robert Hancock Hunter, John Calhoun Hunter, Harriet Harbert Hunter, Thomas Jefferson Hunter, Thaddeus Warsaw Hunter, Messina Hunter, Martha Hunter
Education: Dr. Johnson Hunter, earned a Medical Diploma around 1805. Dr. Johnson & Martha raised 10 children, four girls and six boys. He received a title to a sitio (roughly 4600 acres where La Porte and Morgan's Point, TX are now located) of land from the Mexican government in 1824. In 1826, he sold Hunter's Point (peninsula between Galveston & San Jacinto Bays, now known as Morgans Point and La Porte and relocated to Fort Bend County, where he built a home that served as a Richmond area landmark for fifty years, currently Pecan Grove.[37] In 1855, a five-acre tract of land was donated by Dr. Johnson Hunter on the R.H. Hunter survey and was called the Frost Institute. The institute was organized by Dr. Johnson Hunters' son-in-law. Frost Institute was located approximately six miles north of Richmond.[38] Dr. Hunter was buried in the family cemetery, known as the Brick Church Graveyard.
His death was recorded as 9 Sept 1833 in the diary of William B. Travis. Pryor's will states he was from Botetourt County, Virginia He disowned his only son Trammell J Pryor.
Elizabeth Thompson, 1 Child- Harriet E. Tong (1817–1884)
Father- William H. Tong (1756–1848) Revolutionary Way Minuteman in Maryland, fought at Bradywine and Germantown with George Washington. William Tong, 2 wives and 26 children
Memorial Stone erected by the State of Texas 1936 at the site of Woods Fort
Related Research Articles
The Republic of Texas, or simply Texas, was a breakaway state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. It shared borders with Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, and the United States of America.
Stephen Fuller Austin was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas, he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families and their slaves from the United States to the Tejas region of Mexico in 1825.
The Battle of Velasco, fought June 25-26, 1832, was the first true military conflict between Mexico and Texians in the Texas Revolution, colloquially referred to as the "Boston Harbor of Texas" It began when Texian Militia attacked Fort Velasco, located in what was then Velasco and what is now the city of Surfside Beach. The Mexican commander during the conflict, Domingo de Ugartechea, tried to stop the Texians, under John Austin, from transporting a cannon down the Brazos River to attack the city of Anahuac. The Texian Militia eventually prevailed over the Mexicans. Ugartechea surrendered after a two-day battle, once he realized he would not be receiving reinforcements, and his soldiers had almost run out of ammunition..
Moses Austin was an American businessman and pioneer who played a large part in the development of the lead industry in the early United States, especially in southwest Virginia and Missouri. He was the father of Stephen F. Austin, one of the earliest American settlers of Texas, which was at the time part of Mexico.
Mexican Texas is the historiographical name used to refer to the era of Texan history between 1821 and 1836, when it was part of Mexico. Mexico gained independence in 1821 after winning its war against Spain, which began in 1810. Initially, Mexican Texas operated similarly to Spanish Texas. Ratification of the 1824 Constitution of Mexico created a federal structure, and the province of Tejas was joined with the province of Coahuila to form the state of Coahuila y Tejas.
An empresario was a person who had been granted the right to settle on land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for settling the eastern areas of Coahuila y Tejas in the early nineteenth century. The word in Spanish for entrepreneur is emprendedor.
Haden Edwards was a Texas settler. Edwards County, Texas on the Edwards Plateau is named for him. In 1825, Edwards received a land grant from the Mexican government, allowing him to settle families in East Texas. His grant included the city of Nacogdoches, and Edwards soon angered many of the previous settlers. After his contract was revoked in 1826, Edwards and his brother declared the colony to be the Republic of Fredonia. He was forced to flee Mexico when the Mexican Army arrived to put down the rebellion, and did not return until after the Texas Revolution had broken out.
The history of slavery in Texas began slowly at first during the first few phases in Texas' history. Texas was a colonial territory, then part of Mexico, later Republic in 1836, and U.S. state in 1845. The use of slavery expanded in the mid-nineteenth century as White American settlers, primarily from the Southeastern United States, crossed the Sabine River and brought enslaved people with them. Slavery was present in Spanish America and Mexico prior to the arrival of American settlers, but it was not highly developed, and the Spanish did not rely on it for labor during their years in Spanish Texas.
Alleyton is an unincorporated community in central Colorado County, in the U.S. state of Texas. It adjoins Columbus.
Martin Varner was one of the original American settlers in Mexican Texas, known as the Old Three Hundred, and was a veteran of the Texas Revolution.
The DeWitt Colony was a settlement in Mexico founded by Green DeWitt. From lands belonging to that colony, the present Texas counties of DeWitt, Guadalupe and Lavaca were created. The hub of the colony was primarily located, however, in what is now Gonzales County. The first battle of the Texas Revolution occurred in the DeWitt Colony.
Green DeWitt was an empresario in Mexican Texas. He brought families from the United States to what is now South-central Texas and founded the DeWitt Colony.
James Power was an Irish-born Texan empresario, politician and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, known for the land grant he received with partner James Hewetson that included the coastal area between the mouths of the Guadalupe and Nueces Rivers, as well as his founding and service as the first mayor of the Aransas City settlement. He often represented Refugio County during statewide conventions. Was part of the Mexican national era
James (Jack) Cummins (1773–1849) was a Texas farmer, public official and a colonist of Stephen F. Austin's first settlement in Texas.
De León's Colony was established in 1824 in the northern Coahuila y Tejas state of the First Mexican Republic, by empresario Martín De León. It was the only ethnically Mexican colony founded during the Mexican period (1824-1835) that is located within the present-day U.S. state of Texas.
Robertson's Colony was an empresario colonization effort during the Mexican Texas period. It is named after Sterling C. Robertson, but had previously been known by other names. It has also been referred to as the Nashville Colony, after the Tennessee city where the effort originated, the Texas Association, the Upper Colony, and Leftwich's Grant, named after early colonizer Robert Leftwich. The eventual contract spread over an area that includes all or part of thirty present-day counties in Texas.
James Hewetson was a Texas empresario.
The Lake Creek Settlement was a settlement in Stephen F. Austin's Second Colony, located in Mexican Texas, and later the Republic of Texas after it gained independence in 1836. The Lake Creek Settlement was located between the West Fork of the San Jacinto River (Texas) and the stream known as Lake Creek. It was the first Anglo-American settlement in what is today western Montgomery County, Texas.
Peters Colony is a name applied to four empresario land grant contracts first by the Republic of Texas and then the State of Texas for settlement in North Texas. The contracts were signed by groups of American and English investors originally headed by William Smalling Peters. Samuel Browning, Peters' son-in-law signed the first contract with the Republic of Texas in Austin on August 30, 1841. Ownership of the empresario company changed many times during the life of the contracts.
Sally Skull was the daughter of Rachel Rabb Newman and Joseph Newman, and arrived in Spanish Texas with the first settlers in Stephen F. Austin's colony in the early 1820s. She gained notoriety for her prowess in husbandry, skill in horse trading, marksmanship with the two pistols she carried, commanding language, and for transporting cotton and essential goods for the Confederacy. Skull owned and operated a successful horse ranch, where she employed ethnically Mexican men as ranch hands and teamsters for her caravan and horse wrangling ventures to South Texas and Northern Mexico, Skull was also reported to speak Spanish as well as a native speaker. Skull's livelihood took her well outside of typically female occupations for the time, which was considered "man's work".
↑ Bugbee, Lester G. (October 1897). "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony". Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association. 1 (2): 108–117. JSTOR30242636.
↑ "Tong, James F.", Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
↑ Title: Zadock and Minerva Cottle Woods, American pioneers Author: Paul N Spellman Publisher: Austin, Texas 1988 OCLC Number: 36308761
1 2 Paul N. Spellman, "WOODS, ZADOCK," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed June 16, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
↑ Original papers Regarding Zadock Woodsand His Sons: Norman Woods; Henry Gonzalvo Woods; Montraville Woods; Leander Woods compiled by Robert Forsyth Little, IV and Marianne Elizabeth Hall Little OCLC Number: 310362910 in Historical Manuscript collection, University of Texas at Austin Library.
Davis, William C. (2006), Lone Star Rising, College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, ISBN978-1-58544-532-5 originally published 2004 by New York: Free Press
Edmondson, J.R. (2000), The Alamo Story-From History to Current Conflicts, Plano, TX: Republic of Texas Press, ISBN1-55622-678-0
Greaser, Galen (1999), "Foreword", Austin's Old Three Hundred: The First Anglo Colony in Texas, Austin, TX: Eakin Press, ISBN1-57168-291-0
Hatch, Thom (1999), Encyclopedia of the Alamo and the Texas revolution, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, ISBN978-0-7864-0593-0
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
