A Century of Texas Immigration
1820 to 1920
Presented by Richard Monroe
January 18, 2014
Summary
• Early Immigration to Texas was made possible
by a changing political climate as Texas moved
from being a state in “free Mexico” to an
independent nation to being a state in the US.
• Different motivations caused people from all
over the world to immigrate to Texas.
• Various entry points and destinations were
used by the different groups.
“Pioneers decided to migrate and to settle
where they believed they would best
continue their traditional ways of life and
thought and still seek new opportunities
and improvement of lifestyle. “
David G. Vanderstel
American Civil War
4/12/1861 Spindletop Texas Oil
Boom
4/9/1865
Panic US and Europe
Long Depression
1/10/1901
Mexican Civil War
(1910 to 1940 ?)
9/19/1873
11/20/1910
Texas joined US
Louiana Purchase
12/29/1845
12/20/1803
Mont Tambora
eruption in Indian
Ocean -1816 Year
without summer.- Crop
failures US and Europe
4/10/1815
Bank Panic and US
ecomic collapse
US Page act limited
integration (no
undesirables)
US war with Mexico
5/13/1846 -
US immigration law
excluded undesirables
and required literacy
3/1/1875
2/5/1917
2/2/1848
Irish Potatoe Famine
6/1/1846
9/1/1849
1876 to 1917 East
Texas Piney woods
(Welsh)
WWI (US )
4/6/1917
6/1/1876
Galveston Hurrican
1/1/1819
9/8/1900
Influenza Pandemic
1/1918
6/15/1920
1803
1820
1837
1854
1871
1888
1905
Political Environment for Immigration
Prior 1820 Spanish
• Spain ruled Mexico and allowed no immigration
into Texas except people from Spain and Mexico
prior to Mexican Independence.
• “Spain would not even let a bird cross the
Sabine” … popular saying in 1819.
• December 20, 1820 there was a military coup in
Spain against Ferdinand VII.
• The liberal Spanish constitution of 1812 was
reinstated.
Political Environment for Immigration
1821 - 1822 Mexico
•
December 1820 Colonel Agustin de Iturbide sent with
royalist army to put down the last of the Mexican
Independence forces in Oaxaca, Vincent Guerrero’s
patriotic army.
• Conservative Iturbide values :
1. Independent monarchy from Spain
2. Criollos, Spaniards born in America, and Penisulares,
Spaniards born in Spain, should have equal rights and
privileges.
3. Roman Catholic Church to retain privileges and remain
the official religion of Mexico.
Political Environment for Immigration
1821 - 1822 Mexico
• Iturbide switched sides and convinces his
royalist forces to join with the patriots.
• Combined army is joined by many
volunteers and sweeps into Mexico City.
September 28, 1821 Mexican Empire
(New Spain) proclaimed.
• May 19, 1822 Iturbide is proclaimed
emperor.
Political Environment for Immigration
1798 - 1822 US – Moses Austin
• 1798 Moses Austin’s lead mining business
in Virginia failed and he pursued the lead
mines in Missouri, Spanish Louisiana. He
swore allegiance to the crown of Spain
and received a grant of a league (4,428
acres) of land.
• In 1803 after the US – France Louisiana
Purchase, Moses founded the Bank of St.
Louis as principal stockholder. 1st W of MS
Political Environment for Immigration
1798 - 1822 US – Moses Austin
• Bank Panic of 1819 wiped out Bank of St.
Louis.
• 1820 Moses Austin traveled to San
Antonio Texas and presented a
colonization plan.
• Initially received Empresario grant for 300
families in 1820.
• League and a labor (177 acres) of ranch
and farm land per family.
Political Environment for Immigration
1798 - 1822 US – Moses Austin
• Had to reapply as the Government in
Mexico changed.
• Felipe Enrique Neri, “Baron de Bastrop”,
aka Philip Hendrick Bogel, Dutch
businessman well liked in San Antonio
helped Moses to bring Anglo – Americans
(with allegiance to the crown) to Texas.
Political Environment for Immigration
1798 - 1822 US – Moses Austin
• On the 4 week return trip to Missouri
Moses was waylaid, caught pneumonia,
and subsequently died within 2 months.
• Son Stephen F. Austin fulfilled his father’s
deathbed wish and agreed to facilitate the
fulfillment of the Empresario Contract.
• After first group of settlers arrived Stephen
had to travel to Mexico City to get
authorization from the “new” Mexican
government.
Political Environment for Immigration
1822 - 1832 US – S. F. Austin
• Stephen F. Austin was able to be very
selective in his colonists – “The Old Three
Hundred”. (“Catholics from Spanish
Louisiana”)
• 97% were literate. Able to pay 12.5 cents
per acre. (One bit)
• Austin Colony most successful of all the
Empresario immigration efforts with 8000
people by 1832.
Coahuila / Texas Colonization
1824 - 1832
• August 1824 Colonization Law of Mexico
required each state to pass an immigration
law.
• March 24, 1825 Coahuila (Saltillo) passed
colonization law and began to make
additional empresario grants.
• De Leon received empresario grant for
Mexican immigrants without borders. (“Let
us know where you settle.”)
Coahuila / Texas Colonization
1824 - 1832
• 1825 Major grants to Green Dewitt (400)
and Haden Edwards (800).(Fredonia)
• McMullen and McGloin grants of 1828 for
Irish Catholics at San Patricio. (200)
(Corpus Christi and Refugio).
• 1824 -1828 saw immigration of Cherokee,
Creek, Choctaw, Chickasha, Seminole,
Delaware, Shawnee, Kickapoo, Quapaw,
Indian tribes pushed West from US.
Mexican Empire
(New Spain)
8/21/1821
Emperor Iturbide and
Colononization law of
1823 repealed
3/14/1823
Bank Panic and US
ecomic collapse
1/1/1819
De Leon colony
(Mexican)
4/28/1824
Death of Moses
Austin
6/10/1821
1819
1820 Coup and Civil
war in Spain to 1823
Iturbide proclaimed
Emperor of Mexico
1/1/1820
5/19/1822
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
"New" law of
Colonization for
Mexico
9/1/1824
Coahula and Texas
state law of
immigration
McMullen and
McGloin grant (Irish
settlers- St. Patricio Deleon Ranch)
3/24/1825
8/16/1828
1825
1826
1827
1828
Coahuila / Texas Colonization
1824 – 1832 Other Empresarios
• Minor Empresarios included DeLeon
(Mexico), Robertson, Milam, Hewetson
and Power, and the Galveston Bay and
Texas Land Company.
• Austin (1824) and Dewitt (1836) colonists.
• Land payments started to come due in
1832 from settlers.
• 1832 Coahuila closed immigration to
Anglo-Americans and began “foreclosing”.
Nation of Texas 1836 - 1845
• With foreclosure and other tax efforts the
Native Mexicans and Anglo immigrants began
to strive for independence.
• Battle of San Jacinto resulted in Texas being
established 4/21/1836.
• Santa Anna thought he had agreed to the
Nueces River while Texans knew the border
was the Rio Grande.
Nation of Texas 1836 - 1845
• Debt of nation of Texas by September
1836 was $1,125,000.
• Presidents Burnet, Houston, Lamar,
Houston, Jones.
• Texas fought to secure borders with
Mexico.
• Council House Fight March 19, 1840.
30 Comanche leaders killed and 33
captive lead to years of Comanche raids.
Nation of Texas 1836 - 1845
• Ashworth act of 12/12/1840 permitted
Ashworths as only authorized free blacks
to immigrate after the Texas Declaration of
Independence. Those in Texas before the
Declaration were allowed to remain free.
• Legislature constantly tried to address
issues of governance, fights with Indians,
and with Mexico (Santa Fe and Mier
expeditions. (Defeats)) while bankrupt.
Nation of Texas 1836 – 1845
• Texas emissary to France pursued having
10,000 French soldiers / settlers and a
loan of $5,000,000.
• Count Alphonse de Saligny, French
ambassador left Austin in disgust 4/1841
returning to France where he squashed
the agreement. 6/1841 (Brother-in-law)
• October 1841 England declines to loan
Texas money. (Land backed loans to
Mexico)
Nation of Texas 1836 – 1845
• Texas continued to pursue annexation to
US. Problem – it was a slave state.
• 2/8/1842 Fisher and Castro empresario
contracts by Houston. (few settlers)
• Lamar / Houston squabbled over capital
location from Austin.
• Immigration was left to Empresario grant
system with Peters and Mercer colonies.
French Baron
squashes 10000
French soldiers and
$5 Million loan
6/1/1841
Peters Colony 2nd
Contract
11/9/1841
Peters Colony 3rd
Contract
7/26/1842
Ill Fated Sante Fe
Expedition
Peters Colony 1st
Contract (600
families)
Peters Colony 4th
Contract (10,000)
1st of German Wave
1/16/1845
1/16/1843
Ceremony for Texas
Statehood
(12/10/1845)
Houston signs
Bird's Fort Treaty
8/30/1841
6/21/1841
2/3/1844
2/10/1846
1841
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1846
Peters Colony
1841 to 1850
• W. S. Peters led a group of musicians from
Louisville, Kentucky and contacts in England to
propose settling families to the Congress of
the Nation of Texas (2-14-1841).
• Received backing of President Houston after
the failure of the French efforts.
• Four contracts were issued: the first was for
600 families and the last was for 10,000
settlers (1-20-1843).
Nation of Texas 1841 - 1845
Peters Colony
• Each Peters colonist family received 640 acres
while single men received 320 acres.
• Checkerboard with Texas to sell remaining
acreage.
• W. S. Peters falls sick in Texas and dies in 1843.
• Texas Emigration and Land Company founded
in Louisville, Kentucky to fulfill grant with
remaining relatives and with shareholders.
Texas 1841 - 1850
Peters Colony
• Willis Stewart became president of the Texas
Emigration and Land Company with backers in
Louisville, Kentucky.
• Ads posted in Europe and many places in US
brought in over 8000 settlers.
• Agent Hedgecoxe and settlers had problems
getting clear titles after 1849. (See Hedgecoxe
War in related presentations.)
Nation of Texas 1841 - 1845
Peters Colony
• Ads continued to be placed in European and
US newsletters.
• In London Peters Colony was incorporated as
the “Texas Agricultural, Commercial, and
manufacturing Company” (Cutrer)
• Actively searched for immigrants.
• Conyers (English fast talker) received fourth
contract.
Nation of Texas 1836 - 1845
English / Anglo
• British creditors backed reinvasion by Mexico
because 30 million pounds of loans were
backed by 45,000,000 acres of Texas land.
• Louisville backers were led by Willis Stewart.
• English participants in Peters Colony fade
away.
Nation of Texas 1836 – 1845
Mercer Colony
• Mercer Empresario grant by Houston
encouraged Anglo American immigration on
½ of the acreage of Peters Colonists.
• Enrolled “squatters” and tried to take credit
for all who settled in their “grant“ area.
• Not as well organized as Peters Colony.
Nation of Texas 1836 – 1845
Anglo American
• Factors that spurred Southern Anglo
American immigration to Texas:
1. Depletion of soil fertility.
2. Periodic economic depressions.
3. Desire for “elbow room” not in swamps of
Louisiana, Indians in Oklahoma and Kansas.
4. Iowa and above was for the Midwesterners.
• ¼ came from Tennessee and Alabama.
Immigration to Texas
(Showing number of immigrants in Texas by country of origin in specified U.S. census years)
50000
40000
1860
1880
30000
1900
20000
10000
0
Austria
Belgium Bohemia Denmark England
France Germany Holland Hungary Ireland
Chart recreated from data in Texas : a historical atlas by A. R. Stephens, pages 148-149
Italy
Norway
Poland Scotland Sweden Switzerland
Nation of Texas
1836 - 1845 German Immigration
• German letters by Johann F. Ernst (Old 300) a
German gardener wrote letters to friends and
relatives.
• Prince Carl and 14 others set up Adelsverein
April 20,1842 to protect German settlers.
• A society of Nobles (Mainzer Adelsverein)
sponsored the emigration of 7,380 Germans
to Texas from 1844 to 1847.
Nation of Texas 1836 - 1845
German
Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels
Texas a State
1845 -1860 German Immigration
• 1st group of 439 settled New Braunfels.
• They founded New Braunfels in 1845. Moving
west, they established Fredericksburg in 1846.
• Another group of 4000 were left on beach at
Indianola when US had taken all transport for
the war with Mexico. (led to an epidemic)
• The German population in Hill County
numbered 50,000 by mid 1850’s (2nd largest
group behind Anglos in Texas)
Texas a State
1860 -1920 German Immigration
• Between 1865 and 1890 over 40,000
immigrants from Germany.
• Largest European ethnic group numbering
45,000 in the year 1910 and approximately
17.5% in 1990. (2.95 million)
• Lived in large groups in small towns.
• Immigration and influence slowed with WWI.
Other Immigrant Groups
Wend 1849 - 1860
• Wends – Initially 588 Sorbian/Wends set out
for religious freedom issues.
• 73 died due to difficulties enroute including
cholera and yellow fever.
• Founded Serbin by 3/25/1854.
• Dispersed /Spread thoughout South Central
Texas due to soil and rain conditions.
Other Immigrant Groups
Irish 1824 - 1860
• As Catholics in Irish Empresario grants they
were supposed to land at San Patricio.
• Ladies would not leave the stone walls of the
mission at Refugio.
• Over 1/6 of Houston’s army at San Jacinto
battle which occurred on Irish land.
• Potato famine of 1846-1850.
• Continued immigration of relatives and kin.
Texas Immigration
English / Anglo
• June 27, 1874 battle of Adobe Walls (28 vs.
700 plains Indians) opened staked plains to
ranching.
• Industrial revolution wealth invested in Texas.
• Adams brothers had over a million sheep on
their ranch in Jim Wells county in 1879.
• By 1888 British interests owned, leased, or
operated almost 10% of Texas (20 M acres) for
cattle. XIT had 3 M acres.
Texas Immigration
English / Anglo
• Welsh miners came after iron/coal recession
of 1876. New Philadelphia in Wharton County.
• English depression of 1890’s.
• Alien Land Law of 1892 prohibited acquisition
of Texas land by aliens and required foreign
nationals to become US citizens within 10
years.
• Anson’s sold 20,000 horses for the Boer war
1899 from ranch just east of San Angelo.
Other Immigrant Groups
Czech
• Czechs and Moravians came to establish
family farms and communities starting in 1851
and continuing through to 1920.
• Josef Arnost Bergman, an 1849 Czech settler
at Cat Spring (9 mi. S), inspired immigrants in
large numbers.
• Josef Lidumil Lesikar (1806-1887) was
instrumental in forming the first two large
migrations, 1851 and 1853.
Other Immigrant Groups
Czech
• Initially in the black land and coastal prairies.
• By 1860 there were 700 native Czech and by
1910 there were 15,024.
• Ennis and most recently West are reminders
of the strong Czech contributions.
Other Immigrant Groups
Alsatians
• Texas land empresario Henri Castro contracted
to bring colonists of various European
nationalities to Texas beginning in 1842.
• The first of the Alsatians (German speaking
French) arrived at Galveston in early 1843 with
later groups in 1844.
• Other ships followed in 1845 and 1846. Castro's
contact expired in 1847, after he had transported
more than 2,000 colonists (mostly French) to
Texas, most through Lavaca Bay.
Other Immigrant Groups
French
• Castroville in 1840. (Alsatians)
• 6/16/1856 La Reunion Utopian settlement in
current day West Dallas consisting of 350
French, Belgian, and Swiss colonists.
• Failed by 1859 due to bad weather, poor soil,
inexperience in farming, and break down of
communal life.
• Cajun rice farmers and oilfields 1900-1920.
Other Immigrant Groups
Sweden
• 25 family members of Swante Swenson and
Swante Palm joined them in 1848 and moved
to just east of Austin at New Sweden.
• While only 364 by 1880 they numbered 4344
in the 1900 census.
• The city of Stamford in Jones County was
primary Swedish.
Other Immigrant Groups
Norwegians
• 1848 Four Mile Prairie was first Norwegian
settlement (after Normany aka Brownsboro
failed) followed by Bosque county efforts.
• Cleng Peerson left Dallas with Bryant and
found “good” land in 1852 in SW Bosque
county. Father of Norwegian Immigration.
• Largest group of Norwegians settled in Norse,
Clifton, and Cransfills Gap area.
• Mildred Didriksen, aka Babe Zaharias, was
born at Port Arthur in 1912 to Norwegian
immigrants.
Other Immigrant Groups
Polish
• Polish immigrants (1000) came from 1854-1856
in three groups to Panna Maria. Freedom,
poverty, flood, and potato blight in Silesia.
• Primarily from five counties in upper Silesia –
Opole, Strzelce, Toszek-Gliwice, Lubliniec, and
Olesno.
• Unfortunately set up in rattlesnake nesting area.
Drought in 1855 provided future
discouragement.
• 1880 to 1920 Primary coal miners in Thurber.
Other Immigrant Groups
Italians
• 1880-1915 was the largest period for Italian
immigration.
• First winery at Del Rio in 1883.
• Settled in municipal areas: Galveston,
Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio,
Austin, and Thurber.
• Most were artisans and skilled workers rather
than farmers.
Other Immigrant Groups
Lithuanians
• First Lithuanian immigrants in 1852 in Yorktown
vicinity of Dewitt Colony.
• By 1874 they were joined by about 70 more
immigrants, most came from Gumbinnen in what
was then part of east Prussia.
• They came for religious and political reasons,
arriving in Texas primarily through the ports of
Galveston and Indianola.
• Primarily farmers.
Other Immigrant Groups
Hungarians
• After the failure of the 1849 war for Hungarian
independence. Most farmed.
• 2nd wave came 1890 to 1915 due to
population pressure.
Other Immigrant Groups
Dane
• Danish immigrants led by Travis Shaw and
John Hester settled in Burleson/Lee county
West of Lexington late 1860’s.
• Peak of Immigration between 1885 and 1895.
• Many came as individuals and small family
groups.
Texas During reconstruction 1866 - 1873
• 1867 - Implementation of a Military Governor.
He died during E. Texas yellow fever epidemic.
• 1867 - Resumption of Indian difficulties.
• New Texas Constitution of 1872 gained
readmission to US.
• New Texas immigration act granted 160 acres
to new immigrants.
• Immigration from Europe continued to mid
70’s with close to 25,000 in 1873 alone.
Texas During reconstruction 1866 - 1873
• Numerous Confederate and other Southerners
were ruined by the war - Gone To Texas (GTT).
• 15 years of trail drives as cattle in Texas could
be brought for $7- $8 driven North and sold
for $40 a head.
• Panic of 1873 brought a new wave of 100,000
American immigrants (primarily from the
American South) along the railroads.
Texas 1873 - 1901
• Red River War in 1874 was the first of the final
battles with the Indians. (Gen. MacKenzie)
• European immigration continued from
Germany, Ireland, France, Austria, England,
Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Scotland.
• East Texas Piney woods lumbered off for
railroad ties (1874) and oil derricks. (1901)
• Spindletop brought the “Black Gold” boom to
Southeast Texas oil field.
Texas 1873 - 1905
• Emigration from Europe decreased as
conditions in Europe improved.
• Railroad towns sprang up along the railroads
at 20 mile intervals due to need to take on
water. (Whistle stops).
• Cotton is King – with the availability of rail
transport, by 1881 50,000 bales of cotton in
Dallas. Cotton Exchange 1907.
Texas 1900 - 1910
• Galveston Hurricane 9/8/1900.
• Between 1902 and 1910, oil fever spread
through North Central Texas, with finds at
Brownwood, Petrolia and Wichita Falls.
• W.T. Waggoner Ranch in Wichita County in
1911 found oil, creating the Electra field.
• In 1917, W.K. Gordon, general manager of the
T&P Coal Company's mines at Thurber,
discovered the Ranger field nearby.
Texas 1910 – 1920
• 1910-1920 Mexican refugees flee the civil war
in Mexico. Many crossing at RR points.
(Laredo)
• 1916 General Blackjack Pershing and 4800 US
troops enter Mexico. Battle Pancho Villa
3/29/1916 at Guerrero, Chihuahua.
• Zimmerman letter from Germany encouraging
Mexico to enter war against US.
(Get Texas-California back from US)
Texas 1910 - 1920
• World War I US involvement 4/16/1917
caused training camps to be developed at
Waco, Houston, San Antonio, and Fort Worth.
• Influenza Pandemic January 1918 to mid 1920.
• Texas held out promise to many that was
realized by a few.
• Questions?
Areas of interest not covered
• Mexican Americans in Texas is a subject not
adequately covered. The Mexican experience
in Texas during 1820 to 1920 varied from land
holding majority to oppressed minority and
deserves a separate presentation.