2. Martin de leon
• It was Martín's desire to create a permanent
settlement.
• In 1806 he set up a ranch between Chiltipin Creek
and the Aransas River.
• He petitioned the Spanish Governor of San Antonio
in 1807 and in 1809, for land, but was turned down
because the Spanish government thought he wasn’t
loyal to Spain.
• He started a new ranch on the east side of the
Nueces River where he raised cattle and bred wild
mustangs.
3. Martin de leon
• DeLeon finally got permission to settle 41 families from
the lower "reaches" of the Guadalupe River between the
Guadalupe and Lavaca rivers, the center of which became
the town of Victoria.
• Although boundaries were not established as part of the
contract, which led to trouble with other empresarios.
• As a Mexican citizen the empresario received more land
and more time to settle, which gave them legal
preference in the border disputes with Anglo settlers
around Guadalupe Victoria.
• The colony was successful and had a pleasant relationship
with nearby Native Americans, they named him “Captain
Plenty Cows”.
4. Green dewitt
• In 1825, Austin and Baron de Bastrop helped a man
from Missouri named Green DeWitt to get
permission to introduce 400 families into the area
southwest of the Austin Colony within six years.
• DeWitt and his colonist created the town of
Gonzales.
• DeWitt nor the government realized that his contract
partially overlapped DeLeon’s colony since DeLeon’s
boundaries were not officially recorded with the
government.
5. Green dewitt
• The De Leon colonists were there legally by a provision
that new grants could not remove settlers currently on
their land.
• The Mexican government sided with DeLeon.
• The series of disputes with DeLeon were mainly protests
of various wrongdoings by both sides to the authorities
in San Antonio to try to discredit each other with the
Mexican government.
• Despite the motivation behind DeLeon's actions, the
affair did little to make him accepted by the less than 40
DeWitt Colonists who were struggling to survive their
first year in the new land.
6. Green dewitt
• Since DeLeon was a Mexican Rancher and had fought
in the Revolution, the government tended to side
with him in many of the disagreements with the
anglos.
• DeWitt did bring over 166 families which included
over 500 people to his colony, but it did fall short of
the number in his contract.
• Dewitt’s colony faced many other problems
• Eventually, Dewitt’s colony lasted and had around 400
colonists.
7. Other settlements and empresarios
• Irish: John McMullen, James McGloin, - located at San
Patricio and Refugio – Mainly settled Mexican families.
• James Power, James Hewetson located near Corpus
Christi – Mainly settled Mexican and Irish families.
• German: Johann Friedrich Ernst – Fredericksburg and
New Braunsfels – settled in a corner of Austin’s colony.
• Interactive Map of Colonies
