a century of texas immigration 1820 to 1920txdcgs/documents/a century of texas...chart recreated...

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

1803 1820 1837 1854 1871 1888 1905

Influenza Pandemic 1/1918

6/15/1920

WWI (US ) 4/6/1917

US immigration law excluded undesirables and required literacy 2/5/1917

Mexican Civil War (1910 to 1940 ?) 11/20/1910

Spindletop Texas Oil Boom 1/10/1901

Galveston Hurrican 9/8/1900

1876 to 1917 East Texas Piney woods (Welsh) 6/1/1876

US Page act limited integration (no undesirables) 3/1/1875

Panic US and Europe Long Depression 9/19/1873

American Civil War 4/12/1861 - 4/9/1865

Irish Potatoe Famine 6/1/1846 9/1/1849

US war with Mexico 5/13/1846 - 2/2/1848

Texas joined US 12/29/1845

Bank Panic and US ecomic collapse 1/1/1819

Mont Tambora eruption in Indian Ocean -1816 Year without summer.- Crop failures US and Europe 4/10/1815

Louiana Purchase 12/20/1803

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.


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.


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.


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



• 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.



• 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.



• 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.


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.”)


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.

1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828

McMullen and McGloin grant (Irish settlers- St. Patricio - Deleon Ranch)

8/16/1828

Coahula and Texas state law of immigration

3/24/1825

"New" law of Colonization for Mexico 9/1/1824

De Leon colony (Mexican)

4/28/1824

Emperor Iturbide and Colononization law of 1823 repealed

3/14/1823

Iturbide proclaimed Emperor of Mexico

5/19/1822

Mexican Empire (New Spain)

8/21/1821

Death of Moses Austin

6/10/1821

1820 Coup and Civil war in Spain to 1823

1/1/1820

Bank Panic and US ecomic collapse

1/1/1819


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.


• 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.


• 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)


• 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.

1841 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1846

Ceremony for Texas Statehood (12/10/1845)

2/10/1846

1st of German Wave

1/16/1845

Houston signs Bird's Fort Treaty

2/3/1844

Peters Colony 4th Contract (10,000)

1/16/1843

Peters Colony 3rd Contract

7/26/1842

Peters Colony 2nd Contract

11/9/1841

Peters Colony 1st Contract (600 families) 8/30/1841

Ill Fated Sante Fe Expedition

French Baron squashes 10000 French soldiers and $5 Million loan

6/1/1841

6/21/1841

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).


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.)


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.


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.


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.


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.

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

Austria Belgium Bohemia Denmark England France Germany Holland Hungary Ireland Italy Norway Poland Scotland Sweden Switzerland

Chart recreated from data in Texas : a historical atlas by A. R. Stephens, pages 148-149

Immigration to Texas (Showing number of immigrants in Texas by country of origin in specified U.S. census years)

1860

1880

1900

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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


Hungarians

• After the failure of the 1849 war for Hungarian independence. Most farmed.

• 2nd wave came 1890 to 1915 due to population pressure.


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.

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