Map of Texas with parts of the Adjoining States
Widely considered to be the definitive depiction of early Texas, Austin’s map served as the cartographical foundation of the region for almost two decades. Published by premier cartographer H.S. Tanner of Philadelphia, the highly detailed and accurate map was the first of the region to be commercially produced in the U.S. Spain’s unwillingness to allow information about their loosely-held lands in the New World to escape resulted in a lack of accurate maps of the area, an issue which the Mexican government sought to solve.[1]
The map’s stated purpose was to provide the Mexican government with a precise depiction of its territory. In the United States, however, this map would be used to promote immigration to Texas, specifically to Austin’s Colony. To compile an accurate map, Austin hired surveyors, charted the coast, and acquired boundary surveys compiled by General Mier y Terán on behalf of the Mexican government.
This map once belonged to Hugh and Lucy Kerr,[2] who obtained a land grant from Stephen F. Austin in 1831 and located it east of present-day La Grange, in Fayette County.[3] It is one of the map’s earliest editions, published in 1830 and re-issued many times by Tanner. Rather than purchasing each new addition, Hugh Kerr made small notations on the original map to show where they acquired land and to emphasize other locations, such as the Battleground at San Jacinto in 1836 and the city of Austin in 1839. Later versions are referred to as “General Austin’s Map of Texas,” in deference to the map’s creator. The last re-issue was in 1848 — eighteen years after Austin’s first compilation.
Texas claimed far less land initially than it would eventually possess. It is bordered by the Sabine River in the east, the Red River in the north, and the Nueces River in the south and southwest. Austin’s Colony, De Witt’s Colony, and Stephen F. Austin’s land grant (comprising much of present-day southern Williamson County and northern Travis County) are outlined within the territory. Upon receiving approval from the governor of Béxar to continue Anglo colonization in 1821, Austin carefully mapped the location of his colony.[4] The settlement of San Felipe de Austin is shown with several roads or caminos radiating from it in nearly every direction, as are Bexar and Goliad [Galiod, formerly Bahia]. Crossed swords southwest of Bexar mark the defeat of Mexican General José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois by Spanish General Joaquín de Arredondo at the Battle of Medina in August 1813.[5] A road in the northeast connects Natchitoches, Louisiana, to Texas through San Augustine and Nacogdoches.
Thomas Streeter notes that this map is the first time upon which San Felipe de Austin, Harrisburg, Brazoria, Matagorda, Waco Village, Victoria, and Gonzales appear.[6] Later manuscript additions record the locations of Austin, Houston, and Bastrop. Also noted are the coastal towns of Velasco and Quintana, northeast of Matagorda Bay.[7] Austin purchased a small schooner called the Lively to ferry colonists and supplies to the Texas coast, and Velasco and Quintana were important landing sites.[8] To the southwest, the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Leon are also represented.
Austin designed this map with an eye for topographic detail, and to make the territory of Texas as appealing as possible to potential settlers by including abundant natural resources. Waterways are noted throughout the area. The Eastern Cross Timbers, a strip of thickly wooded forest between the False Washita in the north and a tributary of the Brazos just northeast of Waco Village, is represented by a band of small trees and surrounded by prairie. Texas wildlife is noted in several areas.
In the west, “Immense herds of buffalo” cover a wide swath of land traditionally considered the hunting grounds of the Comanche, who are also noted in the area. “Immense droves of wild horses” straddle the borders between Texas, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas. Southeast of the Bosque River is a notation for “Large droves of Wild Cattle and Horses.” An unnamed mountain range spreads across the southwestern territory. Just south of the San Saba River is a notation for “Silver Mines,” though whether these mines existed is still in dispute. The Rio Grande, not yet the southern border of Texas, is referred to on the map as the “Rio Bravo.”
The completion of the map fulfilled part of Austin’s responsibility, as the preeminent Texas empresario, of providing Mexico with an accurate depiction of its northern territory.[9] While highly detailed and compiled with assistance from Mexican General Mier y Terán, the map nevertheless did little to assuage Mexico’s fears that the growth of Anglo colonization would eventually reject Mexican governance, a foreboding that proved to be true less than five years after the map was issued.[10] Publicly, Austin touted the map as a means “to add to the fund of geographic knowledge of Mexican territory, and to make known our beloved Texas…” In later private correspondence, however, he admitted his hope that the map would act as an undercover tool to draw enough Anglo immigration to negate Mexican restrictions, assuming that “not many of them [Mexicans] know anything about maps.”[11]
While all of Austin’s maps of Texas are highly prized, this is considered the most important printed map of Texas because of its influence on the cartography of the state and impact on immigration and colonization in Texas. Referred to as the “cartographic birth certificate” of Texas, this map was one of the most detailed that had ever been produced of the area. Austin’s work was a revelation that helped to turn the vast territory that had largely been underutilized by Spain and Mexico into the ultimate destination for western migration at the time.[12]
This map is part of the Frank and Carol Holcomb Map Collection, and was digitized in 2017.
[1] Martin, “Maps of an Empresario: Austin’s Contribution to the Cartography of Texas,” 371.
[2] Lucy was the sister of Alexander Thomson, a partner of Sterling Robertson who invested $20,000 in Robertson’s Colony, also known as the Nashville Group. When the family arrived at Harrisburg on April 21, 1831, they intended to settle in Robertson’s Colony; however, the Law of April 6, 1830, which prohibited immigration from the United States, prevented their settlement. Austin had secured an exemption for his colony and Green DeWitt’s, so Hugh and Lucy settled in Austin’s Colony, close to present-day Union Hill. After her husband’s death, Lucy petitioned for and received this land grant near present-day Fayetteville.
[3] The map was passed down through the Kerr family for several generations, and then purchased by Frank and Carol Holcomb of Houston. It is part of the Holcomb Map Collection, which was digitized through the Texas General Land Office, in order to provide better access to Texas maps for the public.
[4] Robert S. Martin, “Maps of an Empresario: Austin’s Contribution to the Cartography of Texas.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 85, no. 4 (1982): 373. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30239726.
[5] Handbook of Texas Online, Robert H. Thonhoff, “MEDINA, BATTLE OF,” accessed July 19, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfm01.
[6] Thomas W. Streeter, Bibliography of Texas, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1960), 103.
[7] Handbook of Texas Online, Merle Weir, “VELASCO, TX,” accessed July 18, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvv07.
[8] Martin, “Maps of an Empresario: Austin’s Contribution to the Cartography of Texas,” 373.
[9] James C. Martin and Robert Sidney Martin, Maps of Texas and the Southwest, 1513–1900 (Austin, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 1999), 121.
[10] Dennis Reinhartz, “Maps of Stephen F. Austin: An Illustrated Essay of the Early Cartography of Texas,” The Occasional Papers, 8th ser. (Winter 2015): 14, accessed July 20, 2018, https://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/pdf/plp/occasional/OccPaper8.pdf.
[11] Martin & Martin, Maps of Texas and the Southwest, 1513–1900, 121.
[12] “Map of Texas With Parts of the Adjoining States Compiled by Stephen F. Austin . . . 1839.” Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc. Accessed July 19, 2018. https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/33114/Map_of_Texas_With_Parts_of_the_Adjoining_States_Compiled_by_Stephen_F/Austin.html.
