county names – Page 2 – Texas History Notebook

Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla

Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, called the Father of Mexico, was born in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico on May 8, 1752. He died when he was executed on July 30, 1811. He is considered a national hero of Mexico. Father Hidalgo was born in Penjamo, Guanajuato. He studied at the College of San Francisco, a Jesuit school, in the town now known as Morelia. After the Jesuits were expelled from Mexico, he received further education there at the College of San Nicolas Obispo. Hidalgo was considered a good student. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1778 after which he taught in the school and held numerous positions in the church. Various articles note that as he was receiving his education and later serving as a priest, he came to be influenced by injustices experienced by Mexican citizens under Spanish rule. He was assigned to the position of parish priest at Dolores, Guanajuato in 1808, after which he became involved in Mexico’s independence movement.

Angelina

The El Paso Herald in its issue of March 11, 1907 reported on the tenth annual meeting of the State Historical Association, held in Austin. During the meeting, the article noted, a paper entitled “The Hasinai Indians of East Texas at the Coming of the Spaniards” was presented by Dr. Herbert Eugene Bolton. Dr. Bolton (1870 – 1953) was originally from Wisconsin and had earned his Ph.D. in American history from University of Pennsylvania. He served as an professor of history at University of Texas in Austin from 1901 to 1909. Though he taught medieval and European history there, he became known for his research into the native tribes north of Mexico and was the author of many articles on the subject. Dr. Bolton later moved to the west coast where he spent the rest of his career as a college professor.

James Kerr

James Augusta Kerr was one of the more interesting people in the early days of Texas. He was born September 24, 1790 in Boyle County, Kentucky to Reverend James Kerr II (1749 – 1811) and Patience Wells Kerr (1759 – 1799). He was the seventh child and second son of the couple’s ten children born over a twenty year period from 1777 to 1797. The father, James, was a farmer and a Baptist minister, more accurately described as a circuit riding preacher. A descendant, James Kerr Crain, writes that Patience, the youngest of a large group of children, had eloped with her husband to be after her parents objected to the relationship, but the union lasted until her untimely death. The mother, Patience, died in 1799 after taking ill on a horseback trip to visit one of their older children. Her husband preached the funeral, which was said to be the first Protestant sermon preached in the sparsely populated Upper Louisiana Territory. Rev. Kerr married a widow by the name of Phoebe Bonham one year after the death of Patience. The family moved to St. Charles County, Missouri in 1808 and Rev. Kerr passed away there in 1811.

Henri Castro

Henri Castro (sometimes called Compte Henri De Castro de Boxar) was living in Paris, France at the time he arranged in 1842 to secure a land grant from Republic of Texas president Sam Houston. His first grant proposal was to bring 200 families to Texas the following year. He was not able to fulfill this agreement. A second effort was more successful. Castro’s ambitious agreement was to bring 600 families from Alsace in France to settle in Texas.

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.