Irish Settlements in South Texas

A little known fact of American history is South Texas was populated by Irish who were invited into that area and given land grants from the Mexican Government in the late 1820's and early 1830's.  The purpose of settling the Irish in South Texas was to build a buffer between the hostile Comanche Indians and Mexico proper.  It was also intended as a buffer between American encroachment from Louisiana into the Mexican State of Tejas.

The Irish were recruited in New York City, Baltimore, MD and back in Ireland.

My 4th-grandfather, Felix HART, was given a Mexican land grant on the provision that he become a Mexican citizen and that he was of the Catholic Faith.  The Texas counties of Bee, San Patricio and Refugio were settled by the Irish.

There were many Irish who fought and died supporting Texas Independence. My 3rd great uncle was one of the 25 Irishmen who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence at Goliad. Many  Irish were murdered by the Mexican Army at the Goliad Massacre including the brother-in-law of my 3rd great grandmother.

Few people, even few Texans, know of the Irish colonies in South Texas.  Every Texas school kid is drilled with the exploits of Stephen F. Austin and many Texans ae proud to trace their roots back to Austin's original 300 settlers. However, the Texas school books totally ignore the Irish who settled at the same time as or even pre-dated some of Stephen F. Austin's settlements. Could this be because of the generally low esteem that Irish were held by the Anglo Americans of that era?  I went to school in Texas and never learned of the Irish Colonies until I began studying my family genealogy in my later years.

I am proud of the contributions of the Irish Americans to the settlement of Texas.  I'd love to hear from anyone who also has Irish Roots that can be traced back to the Irish colonies of South Texas during the early part of the 19th Century.  I also have reference information which I will provide to anyone interested in that phase of Irish-American history.

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/II/pii1.html