HISTORY / sheet 1 of 327 De León A TEJANO FAMILY HISTORY 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK HISTORY / sheet 3 of 327 De León A TEJANO FAMILY HISTORY 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY ANA CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS, AUSTIN Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 HISTORY / sheet 4 of 327 To m y m o t h e r Dr. Martha Lou Castillo Andtomymentor ThelateDr.NettieLeeBenson Copyright © 2003 by the University of Texas Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First edition, 2003 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819. The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Crimm, A. Carolina Castillo, 1946– De León, a Tejano family history / Ana Carolina Castillo Crimm.— 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-292-70216-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-292-70220-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. León, Martín de, 1765–1833. 2. León family. 3. Mexican Americans—Texas—Victoria—Biography. 4. Pioneers—Texas—Victoria—Biography 5. Victoria (Tex.)—Biography. 6. Frontier and pioneer life—Texas— Victoria. 7. Victoria (Tex.)—History. 8. Victoria (Tex.)— Ethnic relations. 9. Escandón, José de, 1700–1770. 10. Frontier and pioneer life—Mexico, North. I. Title. F394. V6 C75 2003 976.4'125'004687200922—dc22 2003013921 Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 Contents HISTORY / sheet 5 of 327 vi List of Maps vii Notes on Terminology ix Preface xiii Acknowledgments 1 Prologue 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY 3 CHAPTER 1 Settling New Spain’s Northern Frontier, 1750–1800 30 CHAPTER 2 The de León Ranches in Texas, 1800–1813 62 CHAPTER 3 Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Victoria, 1813–1828 96 CHAPTER 4 Problems, 1828–1834 123 CHAPTER 5 Tejanos and the Texas Revolution, 1834–1835 152 CHAPTER 6 Revolution and Exile, 1835–1845 185 CHAPTER 7 Fighting for the Land, 1845–1853 214 CHAPTER 8 Tejanos in Texas, 1853–1880 244 Epilogue 249 Notes 287 Bibliography 301 Index Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 ListofMaps HISTORY / sheet 6 of 327 1.1 International Conflict—1780 5 1.2 Nuevo Santander and the Escandón Settlements 11 1.3 Provinces and Towns of New Spain in the 18th Century 19 2.1 Martín de León Ranches in South Texas 34 2.2 Texas and Louisiana 1803–1814 42 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY 3.1 Empresario Contracts 1821–1826 75 3.2 Colonial Conflict 1825–1832 85 4.1 Second Empresario Contracts 1828–1835 102 4.2 Victoria Land Grants 1825–1835 108 5.1 Coastal Control 1835–1850 131 6.1 Texas Revolution 1836 160 6.2 In New Orleans 1836–1837 170 6.3 De León Family Exile, 1836–1845 177 7.1 In the Courts, 1845–1855 195 7.2 Eastern Victoria Land Grants 206 8.1 De León Family Ranches from 1800 to 1880 229 vi Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 Notes on Terminology HISTORY / sheet 7 of 327 There has been much controversy over the correct terms to use for those of Mexican heritage in Texas. I have chosen to use the term Tejano (pro- nounced teh-hah'-no) for those who lived in Texasduring the years prior to Anglo colonization. These are the families whom the later Anglo arrivals calledthe‘‘oldSpanishfamilies.’’IhavecontinuedtouseTejanothroughout the book to differentiate these early settlers and their descendants from 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY Spanish, those born in Spain or who lived under Spanish rule, and from the later arrivals from Mexico, for whom I have used the term Mexican. Finally, by , it was appropriate to use the term Mexican American for immigrants from Mexico who accepted American citizenship. The ‘‘old Spanish families’’ remained the original Tejano settlers. I have used the term Hispanic forresidentsofTexastodaywhoareinanywayrelatedtoor descended from anyone of Spanish or Mexican ancestry. Toavoid further confusion,IhavenotusedtermssuchasLatino, Ladino, or Chicano. ForthosefromtheUnitedStates,IhaveusedthetermAnglo or Anglo American. Mexicans object to the United States usurping the term Ameri- can, since Mexico, too, is part of the American continent. There is also a problem with the term Anglo, which commonly refers to those of Protes- tant British ancestry. The Catholic Irish prefer not to be included with the British, and the term Celt or Anglo Celt hasbeenusedbysomescholars. IhavechosentosimplyusethetermIrish. For those of other European descent, I have used their nationalities. vii Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK Preface HISTORY / sheet 9 of 327 This study follows the lives of three generations of the de León family as they founded ranches along the rivers of South Texas and settled the town of Victoria in present-day Victoria County, Texas.The last years of the eighteenth century and most of the nineteenth century were a time of radical change. The government under which the settlers lived shifted from Spanish rulers to a newly independent Mexican government in 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY to the Republic of Texas in and finally to statehood in the United States. The society changed from autocratic to democratic, the economy from mercantile control to capitalistic investments. The story traces the de Leóns’ success in founding Victoria and their exile from Texas during the Texas Revolution. Rather than end the history with the family’s ex- pulsion from Texasin , I felt it was important to follow their return to Texasand to discover what happened to the family and to their land and culture. Their adjustments to the new society in which they chose to live, as do most human endeavors, brought opportunities as well as difficulties. I first discussed this topic with Dr. Nettie Lee Benson at the Univer- sity of Texas at Austin in . A renowned scholar of Mexican history, Dr. Benson already had turned her insatiable interest toward Mexican Texas, as her article in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly of that year at- tests. Her queries and guidance led me to develop a study of the struggles of Martín de León, the first Mexican empresario. The result became my dissertation. Regrettably, though she worked vigorously until the end, Dr. Benson passed away at the age of eighty-eight, before I had completed the project. Her inspiration, however, continued. NuestraSeñoradeGuadalupeVictoria,thetownfoundedbyMartínde León and his family in , was, with Stephen F.Austin’s colony, the only completelysuccessfulcolonizationeffortinTexas.DeLeón’scolonyonthe Guadalupe River followed Stephen F. Austin’s colonization at San Felipe on the Brazos River by only two years. Each of them faced the challenges of equitably distributing land to settlers, of protecting the settlements, of ix Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 x•D L, A T F H maintaining peaceful relations with the Indians, and of smoothing over quarrels among the often-cantankerous colonists. It was inevitable that HISTORY / sheet 10 of 327 the two empresarios, one Anglo and the other Hispanic, should have had problems. That they were able to succeed despite periodic altercations is a testament to their dedication to their respective colonists and colonies. This study crosses the time periods most frequently used by scholars and neither begins nor ends at any date convenient to historians of either Mexico or the United States. This book starts in the s and ends one hundred years later. The chapter divisions are those which relate to the family,notthosewhichmanyhistoriansoftenuse.ThelivesofthedeLeón family members do not fit into the convenient time frames hedged around them by historians. Nor do they provide neat solutions to scholarly theories. Their lives provide few grand, sweeping generalizations, and their actions offer scant support for broad theories or paradigms. Cliometricians struggle to find 6901 Crimm / DE LEON, A TEJANO FAMILY a large enough pool of individuals in Mexican Texas to make a study sta- tistically significant, ignoring any renegade who may not conform to the pattern. But human beings are renegades and, more often than not, refuse to fit the mold. The reality which historians seek may be in the actions of individuals such as Martín de León rather than in the trends of a large number of generalized subjects. Martín de León and his family lived through some of the most dra- matic times in the intertwining histories of Mexico, Texas,and the United States. They had no idea their lives would span such changes, and their interest was to survive as best they could. De León began life in the Escan- dón settlements of northeastern Mexico, said to have been the site of the greatest land rush of all time. He spent the formative first ten years of his lifeintheexcitingboomtownatmosphereoftheminingvillageofCruillas. He did not join Bernardo de Gálvez in the attack on British Florida, but earlyon,hechosealifeofdangerbothasamuleteerandasamilitiacap- tain. His reason for settling Victoria will never be fully known, but if it was to protect his family, all of his children did receive land, in his eyes the ultimate source of wealth. He also left the conflict of the TexasRevo- lution to his sons and sons-in-law, who remained divided in their views, a split which is sometimes hard to comprehend for students of the Texas Republic. The family, led by Doña Patricia, his wife of forty years, faced the problems of exile and the difficulties of returning to an increasingly antagonistic society in Texas. Don Martín’s marriage partner, Patricia de la Garza of Soto la Marina, Tseng 2003.10.21 08:06 Preface •xi provides a clear image of the kind of women it took to settle the northern frontier.