Foreign Colonization of Texas, I820-1835
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Bastrop to conduct an election for an alcalde and a military commandant to administer the rapidly growing settlements on the Brazos (Washington County) and on the Colorado (near Columbus, Texas). But discourage- ment resulting from the long absence of Austin in Mexico, as well as from the hostility of the Karankawas, a severe drought and an uncertain future had caused many to abandon the settlement. Colonists had begun to arrive early in the fall of 1821. Andrew Robinson had crossed the Brazos River in the vicinity of modem Washington, Texas, in November and become the first settler in the proposed Austin colony. The three Kuykendall brothers and their families joined the Robinsons two or three days later. At first there was only a trickle of settlers, among them Josiah H. Bell. Others soon moved in and took up land as far west as present Independence. By Christmas, Robert and Daniel Kuykendall were on the Colorado and established themselves with Daniel Gilliland in the neighborhood of Columbus. Near Hempstead the affluent planter, lumberman and capitalist of Georgia and Alabama, Jared E. Groce, settled with his fifty wagons and ninety slaves. Others continued to come, some by land and some by sea. The visit of Bastrop in November, 1822, went far to restore the confidence of those who had doggedly weathered the hard times, but the number of immigrants had perceptibly dwindled. Austin's return in August of 1823, in company with the Baron de Bastrop as the accredited land commissioner to issue titles, quickly revived interest. Those who had patiently waited and whose faith had not wavered were rewarded. By the terms of the imperial law each family interested in farming received one labor (177 acres), and stockraisers received a sitio or league square (4428 acres). Naturally, almost all of the colonists declared they intended to raise cattle. By the summer of 1824 Bastrop had issued 272 titles to as many families. It is to be noted that some of these were "corporate" families, or voluntary partnerships of two or three single men; for the purpose of obtaining the square league of land. Special grants were made to those individuals who planned to introduce new industries-mills, for instance, and to those who had means for more extensive development than the ordinary family possessed, such as Jared E. Groce, owner of almost one hundred slaves, who received ten leagues. The first settlers, who came to be known as the "Old Three Hundred," selected the best lands along the Brazos, Colorado and Bernard rivers, from present Navasoto, Brenham and La Grange to the coast. Austin, as empresario, received twenty-two square leagues. Under the provisions
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