Jacob De Cordova — a Texas Promoter and Entrepreneur
From 1845 to 1856, there was arguably no more prolific or successful land agent in Texas than a charismatic Jewish Jamaican of Spanish descent: Jacob De Cordova. De Cordova’s land agency was one of the largest operations in the Southwest, commanding at one point an inventory of about one million acres.[1]
Originally from Spain, the De Cordova name could be traced as far back as the fifteenth century, when General Gonsolvo De Cordova was said to have been knighted for saving the life of King Ferdinand.[2] The Spanish Inquisition forced many of the Jewish De Cordovas out of Spain when they refused to convert to Catholicism, and a branch of the family settled in Jamaica.
Jacob Raphael De Cordova was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica on June 6, 1808 to Judith and Joseph Raphael De Cordova, a coffee grower and exporter. Raised in Jamaica, England, and finally Philadelphia,[3] Jacob first developed an interest in Texas after he and his wife Rebecca had moved to New Orleans in 1836.[4]
Jacob’s exposure to Texans in New Orleans probably convinced him that an independent Texas would be an intriguing place where ambitious businessmen could make a fortune.[5] By 1839, Jacob moved to Galveston and established a store, before moving to Houston. He came alone as evidenced by his conditional certificate where he is granted 320 acres as a single man. His wife Rebecca stayed behind in New Orleans initially with their young son who was born a year earlier. The family joined Jacob sometime after he moved to Houston.
While in Houston, Jacob continued his budding mercantile business of importing and exporting goods between New Orleans and Galveston and developed invaluable business contacts. In 1840 he became one of the first merchants invited to join the new Houston Chamber of Commerce. In 1844, Jacob entered politics and was elected alderman of Houston’s Third Ward, an office he was re-elected to the following year. Meanwhile, his trading business was neither spectacularly successful nor poor, returning profits that were modest at best.
In 1845, the reality of Texas’ annexation to the United States was becoming apparent. Jacob probably predicted that once Texas joined the Union, its land value would increase dramatically. He expected that the United States would provide protection and dissuade Mexican incursions into Texas, which would increase the likelihood of more settlers arriving in Texas, thereby driving up the price of land. Jacob opened his first private land agency in the City Hotel Building in downtown Houston in 1845.[6]
In 1848, De Cordova was elected in a special election and served one year as a State Representative for Harris County after one of the representatives died. While in Austin, he made even more valuable and politically connected allies including Elisha M. Pease, Hardin Runnels, Mirabeau Lamar, Thomas William Ward, and John H. Reagan, who chaired the Public Lands Committee on which De Cordova served.
The land deal for which Jacob De Cordova is probably best known is his role in the establishment of Waco.[7] In 1848, he was hired as an agent to lay out a new town on the banks of the Brazos River, divide the remaining land into smaller tracts, and sell those tracts to settlers. He hired accomplished surveyor George B. Erath to handle the parceling and to lay out the town. Originally conceived to be called ‘Lamartine’, Erath successfully convinced De Cordova that the new town should be called Waco after the local Native American people who inhabited the area.
When McLennan County was established in 1850, De Cordova successfully lobbied for Waco to become the county seat by donating roads and tracts for public use. He also recruited prominent Texans like Capt. Shapley P. Ross from Austin to move to the new town by granting them business concessions and free tracts of land. Such recruitment no doubt played a role in Waco’s rapid growth.[8]
Almost from the beginning of his days as a land agent, Jacob probably realized that land values in this area would rise as long as new settlers were coming to Texas. He published three books[9] and focused on advertising efforts in local and national newspapers to extol the virtues of the land he controlled, as well as Texas as a whole. Most notably, he produced a very well-received and accurate map of Texas in 1849, a copy of which remains at the General Land Office to this day. This map, produced with noted cartographer Robert Creuzbaur, was revised several times until De Cordova sold the publishing rights to famed map publisher J. H. Colton in 1861.[10]
Unfortunately, by the mid-1850s, Jacob apparently began to find himself overextended financially. The land business slowed as the nation began its descent into Civil War, and the interest on Jacob’s many speculative loans began to catch up with him. He was forced to liquidate many of his holdings for pennies on the dollar, which effectively ended his land empire.[11] The late 1850s saw Jacob pivot his career from land agent to lecturer, traveling throughout the US and even England delivering lectures and advocating about the virtues of Texas.[12]
Jacob De Cordova died at his home on January 26, 1868, and was buried on his own land close to the Brazos River. Since he did not leave a will, it took almost 14 years to settle his affairs due to the vast number of land deals to which he was a party. In 1935, Jacob’s remains (along with those of his wife Rebecca) were moved to the State Cemetery in Austin, a deserved honor for his vast contributions to the promotion and development of Texas.[13]
[1] Natalie Ornish, “De Cordova, Jacob Raphael,” Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tashaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fde03), accessed September 18, 2015. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
[2] James M. Day, Jacob De Cordova, Land Merchant of Texas, Waco: Texian Press, 1962. p. 1.
[3] Jacob’s mother Judith died during his childbirth and in the aftermath of the tragedy, Joseph irrationally and unfairly blamed his infant son and could not bear to be in his presence. Because of this, Jacob was sent to be raised by an aunt in England where he spent the first decade or so of his life. But by 1820, Jacob’s father, now living in Philadelphia and remarried, wished to reconnect with his son and realized the unfairness of blaming his son for the loss of his wife. So in 1820, Jacob left England to join his father in Philadelphia.
[4] New Orleans at this time was a fertile recruiting ground for the revolutionary Texian cause and many delegates arrived regularly from Texas to New Orleans to rally support, raise money and recruit soldiers.
[5] Day, Jacob De Cordova, Land Merchant of Texas, pp. 7–8.
[6] Ibid., pp. 26–27.
[7] Roger N. Conger, “Waco, TX.” Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdw01), accessed September 18, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
[8] Jacob himself fell in love with this area, especially the Brazos River, and he moved to a homestead he called “Wanderer’s Retreat” close to the Brazos River in Bosque County. Much of Jacob’s subsequent land dealings focused on this area and frontier areas to the north and west as far as the Red River.
[9] The State of Texas: Her Capabilities and Her Resources, the Texas Immigrant and Traveller’s Guide Book, and Texas: Her Resources and Public Men. Each of these books, while providing valuable information about Texas in general, of course prominently featured lands for sale by Jacob De Cordova.
[10] In 1855 De Cordova hired famed Texas draftsman Charles W. Pressler to improve his map. The 1856 version of De Cordova’s map is the first edition improved by Pressler.
[11] Day, Jacob De Cordova, Land Merchant of Texas, pp. 122–123.
[12] Ibid., pp. 140–143.
[13] Jacob Raphael De Cordova, Texas State Cemetery biography, found at: http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form822.asp?pers_id=77
