martin de leon

Empresario Martín De León founded the city of Victoria and played a key role in settling the Texas Coastal Bend. De León was born in 1765 to an aristocratic family in Burgos, Mexico.

What did Martín De León do that was unique?

He was the patriarch of one of the prominent founding families of early Texas. De León and his wife Patricia de la Garza established De León’s Colony, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas.

Who was the founder of Victoria Texas?

Founded in 1824 by Spanish settlers under Martín de León, it was named to honour both Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesus Victoria (Our Lady of Guadalupe) and Guadalupe Victoria, the first Mexican president. Actively involved in the Texas Revolution, it was incorporated in 1839 as a city in the Republic of Texas.

Where did Martín De León live?

Martín De León, the only Mexican empresario to found a colony in Texas, was born in 1765 in Burgos, Nuevo Santander (now Tamaulipas), where his parents, Bernardo and María Galván De León, settled after moving from Burgos, Spain.

Why was Austin’s colony so successful?

Known as the empresario system, the new law allowed immigration agents such as Austin to bring in families and provided land incentives for their success. Under the empresario system, Austin successfully settled the first 300 families in his colony.

Which empresario was a Tejano?

Don Martín de León was the only Tejano empresario to settle a colony in Texas, in the days before statehood. Other empresarios, such as Moses Austin and Sterling C.

Where was green DeWitt’s colony located?

DeWitt’s Colony was founded by Green DeWitt (1787-1835) as a result of his empresario contract of April 15, 1825 to settle 400 families. The colony was located south of the San Antonio Road in the area between the Lavaca River and the divide of the Guadalupe River and the San Antonio River.

Where did most of the old 300 come from?

The title Old 300 refers to the settlers who received land grants as part of Stephen F. Austin’s first colonial contract in Mexican Texas. These families had come from the Trans-Appalachian South and were virtually all of British ancestry, many of whom already had substantial means before their arrival.

Where was Haden Edwards colony located?

The main part of the colony was in Nacogdoches. The colonies location ran north from Nacogdoches. They were located in East Texas; the piney woods.

Was Martín De León successful?

Although Martín De León died in the cholera epidemic of 1833, more than 100 titles were given to his colonists by July 1835, making him the only empresario besides Austin who completely fulfilled his contract.

What did the old 300 do?

The “Old Three Hundred” were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was a family, or in some cases a partnership of unmarried men. By 1825 the colony they established had a population of 1,790, including 443 slaves.

How was Victoria TX named?

The town was named Guadalupe Victoria for the first president of the republic of Mexico and established in 1824 by Martín De León on the Guadalupe River at a site known earlier as Cypress Grove (see DE LEÓN’S COLONY).

What was the name of the capital of Austin’s colony?

The town of San Felipe, founded on the Brazos River in 1824, served as the capitol of the colony and the location of Austin’s land office.