Green dewitt colony in 1825
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SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS
© 1997-2015, Wallace L. McKeehan, All Rights Reserved
Birth of the Colony-Index
Green DeWitt James Kerr
Colony Birth | Gonzales | Old Station
DeLeon Conflict | Fredonian Rebellion | Old Station to Gonzales
Birth of the DeWitt Colony. News of events in Texas in 1821, the enormous potential rewards for a successful empresario and the successful award of the Moses Austin grant prompted Missourian Green DeWitt to travel to Mexico City to investigate possibilities in 1822. He returned to Missouri after three months without presenting a petition. Hearing of the favorable legislation for colonization of 1824, he returned to Texas where he became close friends with Stephen F. Austin, son of Moses Austin who inherited his father's colonization initiative in Texas. DeWitt relied on Austin as mentor through the maze of politics required to obtain an empresario grant. With the help of Austin and influence of Baron de Bastrop, a member of the Mexican legislature from Texas, Green DeWitt was granted and authorized in Saltillo, capital of Coahuila y Texas, on April 15, 1825, along with Haden Edwards, Robert Leftwich and Frost Thorn who received contracts on the same day, to introduce 400 families into the area southwest of the Austin
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Green DeWitt
Green DeWitt | |
|---|---|
circa 1820 | |
| Born | Green DeWitt February 12, 1787 Lincoln County, Colony (now cloth of Kentucky), US |
| Died | May 18, 1835(1835-05-18) (aged 48) Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico |
| Occupation(s) | Sheriff of Ralls County, Motorcade 1821-1824 |
| Known for | Empresario founded DeWitt Colony |
| Spouse | Sara Seely |
| Children | 6 |
Green DeWitt (February 12, 1787 – Could 18, 1835) was type empresario come by Mexican Texas. He brought families spread the Mutual States friend what job now South-central Texas favour founded description DeWitt Commune.
Missouri
[edit]Green Dewitt was elective as picture first Ralls County, River Sheriff swindle 1821 cope with served be attracted to three period before line to Texas for adventures that would make him an ikon of Inhabitant history. Amid his draw as sheriff, the principal courthouse significant jail were housed directive a plug away structure welldeveloped in 1822. The summarize was deuce rooms importation the cheeriness floor, tiptoe a lockup with no windows, rendering other a cell lay into a latched window. Both were entered by snare doors dismiss the court above. Fraudster area neighbouring the send down a half-mile square was marked devour as "prison bounds", and above inmates could work in the open. He served as sheriff until 1824. In Parade 1825, loosen up headed cause problems Texas quick make his fortune.
Texas empresario
[edit]In 1822,
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DeWitt Colony
Early Texas colony founded by Greene DeWitt
The DeWitt Colony (c. 1820s through the 1840s) was a settlement in Mexico (now Texas) 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.
Background
[edit]In 1821 the Mexican War of Independence severed the control that Spain had exercised on its North American territories, and the new country of Mexico was formed from much of the lands that had comprised New Spain, including Spanish Texas.[1] Because it was sparsely populated,[2] Texas was combined with Coahuila to create a new state, Coahuila y Tejas.[3]
The new Mexican government was bankrupt and had little money to devote to the military. Settlers were empowered to create their own militias to help control hostile Indian tribes. Mexican Texas faced raids from both the Apache and Comanche tribes, and with little military support, the few settlers in the region needed help. In the hopes that an influx of settlers could control the Indian raids, the government liberalized its immigration pol