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De León's Colony was established in 1824 in the northern Coahuila y Tejas state of the First Mexican Republic, by empresario Martín De León. It was the only ethnically Mexican colony founded during the Mexican period (1824-1835) that is located within the present-day U.S. state of Texas .
Oct 21, 2020 · The De León colony comprised all of present Victoria and Calhoun counties and extended into Lavaca, Jackson, and DeWitt counties as well. Settlers farmed and raised horses and cattle. The estimated wealth of the colony at the empresario's death was over $1 million.
Jun 22, 2019 · De León's colony was the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, and as a Mexican citizen the empresario received legal preference in the numerous border disputes with American settlements encircling Guadalupe Victoria.
De León received a land grant after Mexico won its independence from Spain. In 1824 he was given permission to start a colony of 41 Mexican families in Texas, on the lower Guadalupe River. He founded the town Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesús Victoria (now the city of Victoria).
Martín de León was the only Mexican empresario (land agent) to establish a colony in Texas. He founded what is now Victoria, Texas, as the center of the colony. De León was born in Burgos, in the Spanish province of Nuevo Santander (now Tamaulipas state, Mexico), in 1765, to a prosperous and aristocratic Spanish family.
Martín De León. Martín De León (1765–1833) was a rancher and wealthy Mexican empresario in Texas who was descended from Spanish aristocracy. He was the patriarch of one of the prominent founding families of early Texas. De León and his wife Patricia de la Garza established De León's Colony, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas.
The De León Colony Records consist of legal documents and correspondence dated from 1831 to 1835. Land titles in the colony and town tracts of Victoria make up the bulk of the records, with a small amount of correspondence regarding the establishment of the colony.
