CASTRO'S COLONY: EMPRESARIO COLONIZATION IN TEXAS, 1842-1865 by BOBBY WEAVER, B.A., M.A. A DISSERTATION IN HISTORY Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Accepted August, 1983 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I cannot thank all those who helped me produce this work, but some individuals must be mentioned. The idea of writing about Henri Castro was first suggested to me by Dr. Seymour V. Connor in a seminar at Texas Tech University. That idea started becoming a reality when James Menke of San Antonio offered the use of his files on Castro's colony. Menke's help and advice during the research phase of the project provided insights that only years of exposure to a subject can give. Without his support I would long ago have abandoned the project. The suggestions of my doctoral committee includ- ing Dr. John Wunder, Dr. Dan Flores, Dr. Robert Hayes, Dr. Otto Nelson, and Dr. Evelyn Montgomery helped me over some of the rough spots. My chairman, Dr. Alwyn Barr, was extremely patient with my halting prose. I learned much from him and I owe him much. I hope this product justifies the support I have received from all these individuals. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii LIST OF MAPS iv INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter I. THE EMPRESARIOS OF 1842 7 II. THE PROJECT BEGINS 39 III. A TOWN IS FOUNDED 6 8 IV. THE REORGANIZATION 97 V. SETTLING THE GRANT, 1845-1847 123 VI. THE COLONISTS: ADAPTING TO A NEW LIFE .... 148 VII. THE LAND: DISTRIBUTING THE GRANT PROPERTY . 182 VIII. SETTLING IN: 1850-1865 205 BIBLIOGRAPHY 233 111 LIST OF MAPS Page 1. Republic of Texas Empresario Land Grants 1841-1842 35 2. Castro's Colony: Towns Founded 138 3. Castro's Colony: Landforms and Previously Granted Lands 190 4. Castro's Colony: Lands Granted to Castro and His Colonists 196 IV INTRODUCTION There are many ways to explain American history. Some have described it as the saga of powerful men strug- gling to mold the nation in the form they deemed best. Others have seen it as the massive interaction of groups whose pursuit of varied interests developed the institu- tions of the country. Still others have viewed it as a reaction to environmental forces that channeled economic and social forces in certain directions. Yet a most im- portant fact in American history is that the nation began as a vast sparsely settled land mass whose history devel- oped as the population increased. Thus the settlement process has been a critical aspect of American history. From the time of the sixteenth century European settlement in North and South America, private agents received compensation to aid imperial policy. The British proprietorship, the Dutch patroonship, the French seigneury, and the Portuguese captaincy all represented institutions used for this purpose. The problem of set- tling and governing vast areas of land lay beyond the financial means of the European nations. So they con- tracted with private individuals to do the job. All of these colonization concepts included transporration of 1 colonists to the new world. After the United States became independent from England, the new nation began to develop a land policy that varied somewhat from the private contracting system of the European powers. The nev/ nation rewarded military service and other assistance to the country with land donations and began to sell portions of the public domain. This policy was designed to settle the frontier as rapidly as possible while at the same time furnishing most of the financial support for the new nation. By the 1830s, during Andrew Jackson's administration, most of the Mississippi Valley was settled and there was actually a surplus in the United States treasury. By around 1800 the Spanish empire had reached its northern limits in Texas and New Mexico. The remote loca- tion of the region combined with its lack of great wealth producing resources such as mines made it an unpopular settlement area. Despite repeated efforts to colonize the region, the nineteenth century dawned with fewer than 5,000 Spanish citizens in Texas. The Spanish government looked in vain for a means to make the area secure, particularly after several filibustering expeditions entered the region Charles Gibson, Spain in America (New York, 1966) , 48-67; Wallace Notestein, The English People on the Eve of Colonization (New York, 1954), 250-266; Wesley Frank Craven, The Colonies in Transition (New York, 1968) , 68-103. from the territory of the rapidly expanding United States. Some officials believed that encouraging United States citizens to colonize Texas and become Spanish citizens might discourage filibusters and make the area secure for 2 Spam. The first contract to introduce Anglos into Texas was made in 1821. It was termed an empresario land grant, which is a Spanish term referring to one who brings some- thing in, and it was issued to Stephen F. Austin to settle 300 Anglo colonists on agrant in excess of 200,000 acres. In the year 1821, Mexico became independent from Spain so Austin, whose father received the grant from Spain the previous year, persuaded the Mexican government to validate 3 the contract. Ultimately Austin and numerous other individuals received empresario contracts. At least nine of those empresarios actually introduced settlers into Texas. A flood of people poured into the region which by 18 30 con- tained more than 20,000 new citizens. The tremendous success of the empresario program alarmed Mexican officials 2 Odie B. Faulk, "The Penetration of Foreigners and Foreign Ideas into Spanish East Texas, 1793-1810," East Texas Historical Journal 2 (1964): 87-94; For a good overview of the filibustering expeditions see Warren Harris Gaylord, The Sword Was Their Passport (Baton Rouge, 1943). Eugene C. Barker, The Life of Stephen F. Austin, Founder of Texas, 1793-1836 (Austin, 1949), 23-79. who stopped the influx from the United States by a law passed in 1830. They feared that the new settlers who outnumbered the original Mexican citizens by a ratio of 4 four to one would create unrest in the province. Evidently the fear of conflict in Texas was justi- fied. Various differences between Anglo Texans and govern- ment officials combined with the general political unrest in Mexico to produce a revolution. Fighting, which began in late 1835, led to independence for Texas in the spring of 1836. The citizens selected as their leaders former United States citizens who drew upon the long tradition of English and United States land policy to help stabilize thei4.U •r new nation.-•. 5 The Republic of Texas remained an independent nation from 1836 until it became a part of the United States in 1845. The new nation concerned itself with finance, defense, foreign relations, and the problem of populating its vast public domain. The last problem impinged directly on all the others because the nation depended upon population and land sales to support the government. "^Eugene C.Barker, "Land Speculation as a Cause of the Texas Revolution," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 10 (1906): 76-95; Mary Virginia Henderson, "Minor Empre- sario Contracts for the Colonization of Texas, 1825-1834," ibid., 31 (1927): 295-324; ibid., 32 (1928): 1-28. ^Barker, Stephen F. Austin, 427-446. The Republic of Texas tried several methods of land distribution to stimulate population growth. The leaders of the republic gave land donations to veterans and others who helped the republic as well as offering free public lands to attract settlers to Texas. Then they attempted to sell the public domain in imitation of United States land policy. Finally they settled on a contract system popularly called an empresario system despite the fact that Texas was no longer a Mexican possession. The new land grant system was very similar to that which originally attracted the large population to Texas. Although most of the empresario contracts made by the Republic of Texas were cancelled within a short time, they attracted a considerable influx of settlers and the publicity they generated created a continuing movement to the area, particularly from Europe. Henri Castro estab- lished one of those colonies. His effort represents an excellent case study of the process by which an empresario system developed, how it operated, the results it achieved, and the impact it had on Texas. Two book length treatments of Castro's colony exist. The first, an unpublished 1928 University of Texas master's thesis by Audrey Goldthorpe entitled "Castro's Elgin Williams, The Antimating Pursuits of Specu- lation (New York, 1949), 89-100. Colony," presents an overly favorable view of Henri Castro while giving only a cursory examination of the colony. Somewhat later, in 1934, Julia Nott Waugh published Castro-ville and Henry Castro, Empresario. The Waugh book is somewhat more perceptive, but its focus is on Castro- ville. Both of these books fail to place the colony within the historical perspective of Texas history, nor do they present an adequate study of the operation of the colony. The study presented here proposes to tell the story of Castro's colony in considerable detail. First it presents an external approach concerning the colony's relationship to Texas. Then it gives a detailed study of the internal workings of the colony including colonization, business techniques, the land question, and the colonists themselves. Finally, it compares Castro's colony to other empresario projects under the auspices of the republic and assesses its importance in relation to the early history of Texas. CHAPTER I THE EMPRESARIOS OF 1842 Land grants have played an important part in the history of Texas.