Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
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Pecan Point had been considered a part of Missouri until 1820, when it was reorganized as part of Miller County, Arkansas, but eventually -after 1828-turned out to be entirely within the boundary of Texas. These settlers were, in fact, Texas colonists. They filtered into the area independently of any empresario. "They came from Kentucky and Tennessee by way of Missouri and Arkansas. Their fathers had followed Boone and Harrod over the Wilderness Road to Harrodsburg and Bryan's Station, or pioneered with Sevier along the waters of the Holston or French Broad." 65 By 1821, when Texas was formally opened to colonization, there were approximately eighty families in and around Pecan Point. A few of them, like Gilliland, Varner, Andrew Robinson, and Jesse Burnam, moved to Austin's colony on the Colorado. Their place in Northeast Texas was soon taken over by others. The colony at Pecan Point increased rapidly after 1825 from the influx of families from north of the river, many of whom were driven from their homes to make way for the Choctaws. At about this same time Mexico and the United States were preparing to survey the boundary line as determined by the Florida Treaty of 1819. The treaty had set the limits of Northeast Texas at a line running from the point where the Sabine River intersects Red River at parallel 32°. Many settlers-resentful at having to pay taxes, a matter that always angered the pioneer beyond words, and convinced of being located within the limits of Mexico instead of the United States-made plans to organize themselves under Mexican jurisdiction. But the passage of the law of 1830, the subsequent restriction placed on immigration from the United States, and the growing dissatisfaction with Mexican rule throughout the Anglo-American colonies postponed action. Not until the Revolution in 1836 were the settlers in this remote northeast corner of Texas united politically with the rest of the State. Settlers froni beyond the sea. With the exception of the Mexican families introduced by de Leon and a few others who came independently, practically all those established by the various empresarios came from the United States. There were several empresarios, however, who con- 65 Rex W. Strickland, "Miller County, Arkansas Territory, The Frontier That Men Forget," Clsronicles of . Okla/soma, XVIII, I 2-34, 154-170; XIX; 37-54• This is the best and only complete account of the settlement of Northeast Texas, and is used as the chief source for the summary given here. Pecan Point appears on Austin's manuscript map of 1833 as part of Texas. See Castaneda and Martin, Tlsree Manuscript Maps of Texas.
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