Green DeWitt and the DeWitt Colony

Green C. DeWitt was born to Walter John DeWitt and Sarah Ann Holliday DeWitt on February 12, 1787 in Lincoln County, Kentucky. Walter John DeWitt is referred to as a Revolutionary War veteran. Not a great deal is known about the Walter John DeWitt family but they are presumed to have made their living as farmers. Green’s paternal grandfather DeWitt was born in New York, was of Dutch heritage, and his wife, Catherine Pierette Depuy de Brissac, appears to have been of French heritage.

All of Green’s siblings appear to have been born in Kentucky. He was the youngest child and the family relocated to Missouri, at that time still a property of Spain, not long after he was born. The Louisiana Purchase occurred a few years later in 1803, adding the area to the United States. Green was married to Sarah Seely on December 15, 1808 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was born in an section of Virginia that is now part of the state of West Virginia to a family of land owners. Her father also is said to have fought in the Revolutionary War.

The children of Green and Sarah DeWitt were Eliza, Naomi, Eveline, Christopher Columbus, Clinton Edward, William Augustus and Minerva. The children were born over a twenty year period from 1809 to 1829.

Green was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old when he enlisted in the Missouri militia during the War of 1812 and held the rank of an officer by the end of the war. The family remained in Missouri after 1820 where among his other jobs, he served for a time as sheriff of Ralls County. The county is situated northwest of St. Louis. One of the county borders is the Mississippi River. Hanibal, Missouri is right on the border of Ralls County and is known as the boyhood home of Mark Twain.

Inspired by the early publicity and apparent success of Moses Austin in obtaining permission from Spain to establish a colony in Texas, Green began the process of trying to establish his own colony. His first attempt around 1822 was unsuccessful, but he was persistent and was assisted by Stephen F. Austin, Baron de Bastrop and others in obtaining his own empresario grant in 1825 after the Mexican Revolution.

The process required Green to travel to Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico and petition the new Mexican government. His efforts were rewarded and on April 15, 1825, Green was granted permission to settle four hundred families in Texas. The area he was allowed to settle on included the Guadalupe River. Benefits to the empresario included receiving title to land, possibly earning income from fees and the administration of a successful colony.

Green’s colony was to be located west and south of Austin’s colony. Looking at is boundaries today, it included much of what is now Guadalupe, Caldwell, Gonzales, Lavaca and DeWitt counties with the town of Gonzales located roughly in the center of it. It was also surrounded other colonies and from time to time, border disputes arose between the leaders of those colonies.

By 1828, the colony had over 100 settlers. According to the excellent website http://www.sonsofdewittcolony.org, a basic census was taken that enumerated the residents and their livestock. The list of residents included Green DeWitt and family, an older brother James DeWitt and wife, James Kerr (a widower who became the namesake of Kerr County; Kerr’s wife and two of their three children had previously died of cholera), Byrd Lockhart and wife, four families of McCoys, three families of Taylors and others. The first wedding in the colony was recorded between Nancy Curtis and John Oliver (listed as a single man in the 1828 census) and took place on March 5, 1829. There was no church nor an appointed alcalde (like a mayor) in the colony, so the marriage was solemnized with a document referred to as a “marriage bond,” witnessed by Oliver, Curtis and DeWitt.

Although Green may not have had as strong an influence in the affairs of his colony when compared with that of de Leon, Stephen F. Austin or some others, DeWitt’s colony was considered to be a success. Kerr served as surveyor for the colony. Lockhart was said to have built roads there. They and others received grants of land in the colony as some of their compensation for services.

Green DeWitt’s grant is said to have expired on April 14, 1831 and was not renewed. By then, an estimated 200 families had settled in the area. A bit more than a year later, a newspaper article appeared in the National Banner and Daily Advertiser (Nashville, Tennessee) issue of August 20, 1832 describing a December, 1831 trip to DeWitt’s colony. The author was a “Philander Preistley,” possibly a pen name or a person named Philander McBride Priestley who had once held an administrative office in the government of the State of Tennessee. The author tells of landing at the mouth of the “Brassos” at the Gulf of Mexico and navigating upstream. Preistley names other rivers as the Colorado, the “La Baca” and the “Gaudalope.” He described first a barren area that soon changed in to rich farm and timber land as he passed through Brazoria and more communities. He noticed wild peaches, good for feeding hogs, before he came to San Filipe de Austin. The author describes farming country and water sources turning two different mills. Preistley describes the area around Gonzales, 170 to 180 miles inland, and in DeWitt’s colony also as being rich and fertile, “better watered” than Austin’s colony, and somewhat given to rolling hills.

Preistley names certain individuals and tells of the crops they raised. He goes on to describe stock raising and the abundant prickly pear cactus with its colorful blooms and closes by referencing the various fees involved in obtaining title to land. The author notes that the land was still part of the Mexican Republic, that the colonists have all the privileges of native citizens with some exceptions. He also notes that the Catholic Religion is the established religion of the area, though residents hold family worship and “enjoy unmolested their religious tenets.” There is no personal reference to Green DeWitt, nor any reason given for the author’s trip.

Green DeWitt continued to live in the area and try to develop his land. The Texas Revolution was looming, but DeWitt did not live to see it. He died in Moncolvo, Coahuila, Mexico on May 18, 1835, possibly during an outbreak of cholera, while on a business trip. Green was buried in Mexico in an unmarked grave, although there is a gravestone in Gonzales’ DeWitt Cemetery in his name. His wife Sarah survived him about 19 years until her death in 1857. She is also buried in DeWitt Cemetery. DeWitt County is named for Green DeWitt.

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