4/15/1825: Empresarios receive colonization contracts

[Craig Tx]

On this day in 1825, Haden Edwards, Green DeWitt, and Robert Leftwich received empresario contracts.

The government of Mexico, which had gained independence from Spain in 1821, issued the contracts to encourage the settlement of Coahuila and Texas. The hopes of all three empresarios were frustrated. The Edwards Colony, near Nacogdoches, was plagued by conflicting land claims and other controversies which eventually caused Edwards to depart and resulted in the Fredonian Rebellion. The DeWitt Colony, on the Guadalupe River adjoining that of Stephen F. Austin, enjoyed some initial success, though DeWitt was unable to fulfill the terms of his contract by the time it expired in 1831. Leftwich's Grant, along the Navasota River, later became known as Robertson's colony, and was the subject of much legal disputation between Austin and Sterling C. Robertson.