Connected Map of DeWitt’s Colony compiled from the surveys of Byrd Lockhart
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 2, 2018.
The second floor of the Bullock Texas State History Museum introduces visitors to American colonization into the then-Mexican state of Texas. Using maps and land documents from the Texas General Land Office, visitors learn about the empresario system used to spur colonization and meet some of the immigrants who moved to Texas between 1821 and 1836. Beginning this March, documents introducing the DeWitt Colony will be on display at the Bullock, including Green DeWitt’s April 7, 1825, petition for an empresario grant to bring 400 settlers into Mexican Texas, his wife Sara Seely DeWitt’s petition for one league of land (acquired to save the family from financial ruin after Green DeWitt failed to recruit 400 settlers to his colony), and the map of DeWitt Colony completed circa 1836. The documents will be on display through August 2018.
The Connected Map of DeWitt’s Colony, an original manuscript map, is one of a handful of pre-Republic colony maps held in the Archives of the Texas General Land Office. Alike in purpose to the Connected Map of Austin’s Colony, this map shows the location and relative placement of surveys granted to settlers within the boundaries of DeWitt’s Colony.
DeWitt’s Colony was established by the empresario Green DeWitt and surveyor-general James Kerr. After a failed attempt to petition the Mexican government in 1822, DeWitt submitted a new request and finally received his empresario contract in 1825, which called for the settlement of “four hundred industrious Catholic families.” The colony was to be located southwest of, and adjacent to, Austin’s Colony [1].
The northeast boundary of the colony was the Lavaca River, specifically beginning from a point ten leagues from the Gulf Coast, up the river to the Old San Antonio Road [2]. The Old San Antonio Road then served as the northwest boundary of the colony from the Lavaca River to a point two leagues west of the Guadalupe River. The southwest boundary began from that point west of the Guadalupe and ran roughly parallel to the river to a point ten leagues from the Gulf Coast. The southeast boundary then simply ran from this point west of the Guadalupe parallel to the Gulf Coast until it closed with the beginning point on the Lavaca River. This map clearly shows all four of these boundaries; however, the Old San Antonio Road is not labeled, and the full length of the Lavaca River is not shown.
In 1825, James Kerr and several other early colonists set out to locate a townsite to serve as a headquarters for the colony [3]. That summer, they selected a location where the Guadalupe and San Marcos rivers intersect and built the first cabins on a creek that was later named Kerr Creek [4]. Kerr began laying out plans for the new town and chose the name Gonzales in honor of the governor of Coahuila and Texas, Don Rafael Gonzales.
The first year in Gonzales proved to be a trying one, with non-stop raids by hostile Native Americans taking their toll. In July of 1826, the meager population of Gonzales fled to Austin’s Colony after a particularly brutal raid. Because of these continuous attacks, Kerr established another town called Old Station near the mouth of the Lavaca River to serve as the landing point for incoming colonists. Old Station, situated in the prohibited area within ten leagues from the Gulf Coast, was technically not within the bounds of DeWitt’s Colony (and is not visible on this map). Despite this, it served as the de-facto headquarters of the colony for almost a year and a half until there were enough colonists and fortifications built in Gonzales to withstand further raids.[5]
The population grew modestly within DeWitt’s Colony over the next few years. By 1830, the colony had settled the required minimum of 100 families. Upon meeting this milestone, settlers were able to apply for and receive title to their lands.[6] José Antonio Navarro was appointed land commissioner of the colony in January 1831, and Byrd Lockhart was in turn appointed by Navarro to be his surveyor to establish the official metes and bounds of the various lands granted to the settlers as specified by the Mexican Colonization Law of 1825.[7]
Byrd Lockhart had moved to the colony with his family from Missouri in March of 1826 after meeting Green DeWitt in New Orleans.[8] By December of 1826, Lockhart had established himself as a proficient surveyor and set about charting much of the territory around Gonzales while serving as Kerr’s deputy beginning in 1827. As he was very familiar with the colony and area, Lockhart was an excellent choice by Navarro to serve as surveyor-general for the colony. Assisted by his brother Charles, Byrd Lockhart conducted almost all the surveying of grants in DeWitt’s Colony in 1831 and 1832, which are reflected on this map. Underscoring the importance of water to the new settlement, the bulk of surveys clustered along the banks of the Guadalupe, San Marcos, and Lavaca rivers and their tributaries. In all, 189 titles were issued to settlers in DeWitt’s Colony.
The map’s draftsman was not specified, nor did they date the map. For decades it was thought to be dated to 1854, almost certainly in error. Most of the Lockhart surveying efforts took place in 1831 and 1832, so it would have been highly unlikely that this map was drawn over 20 years later. Also, this map does not show any county names, despite the fact the surveys drawn cover nine present-day counties,[9] all of which were established by 1854,[10] and would likely have been included.[11] Finally, one of the earliest tasks appointed to Commissioner John P. Borden and the General Land Office in 1836 was to gather the land records and maps relating to Spanish- and Mexican-era colonization, including Austin’s Connected Map. This would suggest that DeWitt’s own Connected Map may have begun as early as 1831, and was completed and incorporated into the GLO Archives very early in the agency’s history, likely 1837. [12]
The Connected Map of DeWitt’s Colony is part of the permanent collection of the Texas General Land Office. It was professionally conserved in 2007 as part of the Save Texas History Program. A full-size, color reproduction of the map can be purchased for $40, with all proceeds going to the conservation of the GLO’s archival collection.
[1] Rather, Ethel Zivley. “De Witt’s Colony.” The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 8, no. 2 (1904): 95–192. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30242807.
[2] Based upon the National Colonization Law of April 18, 1824, no lands could be granted within ten leagues from the Gulf Coast without special exception granted by the Mexican Government.
[3] The men that joined James Kerr in the search for a capital site were: Erastus “Deaf” Smith, Brazil Durbin, Geron Hinds, John Wightman, James Musick, and a Mr. Strickland.
[4] The San Marcos River is represented on this map as “St. Marks River”.
[5] Rather
[6] Ibid.
[7] The Colonization Law of March 24, 1825, specified that heads of families could receive up to a league (4428.4 acres) of grazing land and a labor (177.1 acres) for cropland
[8] Groneman, Bill, “Lockhart, Byrd”, Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 5, 2018, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/flo01
[9] DeWitt’s Colony covers the modern-day counties of: Caldwell, Comal, DeWitt, Fayette, Gonzales, Guadalupe, Hays, Lavaca, and Victoria.
[10] Luke Gournay, Texas Boundaries — Evolution of the State’s Counties, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995.
[11] The colony maps in the GLO drawn after 1837 all feature county names.
[12] The papers and titles from DeWitt’s Colony were delivered to the GLO on October 10, 1837. A map was not specifically listed among the items delivered; however it is likely the map — or the beginning of one — was among these documents. Galen D. Greaser, Catalogue of the Spanish Collection Part One, Austin: Texas General Land Office, 2003.
