THE TEXIANS AND THE TEXANS
THE
FRENCH
TEXANS
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
THE TEXIANS AND THE TEXANS
A pamphlet series dealing with the many kinds of people who
have contributed to the history and heritage of Texas. Now in
print: The Indian Texans, The German Texans, The Norwegian
Texans, The Mexican Texans (in English), Los Mexicano Texanos
(in Spanish), The Spanish Texans, The Polish Texans, The Czech
Texans, and The French Texans.
© 1973: The Institute of Texan Cultures
Cover illustrations: Henry Du Bellet, Courtesy of Virginia H. Taylor
View of Castroville in 1908, Courtesy of Bob Johnson
The Haldy Family of Castroville, Courtesy of Ruth Lawler
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INTRODUCTION
The French. like the Spanish, have been
in Texas for several centuries. From the
appearance of La Salle and his colony in
1685 to the ceding of French Louisiana to
Spain in 1762, the French story is filled
with accounts of discovery, exploration,
territorial ambition, war, Indian diplo­macy,
and trade. Spain occupied Texas to
keep the French away from the silver
mines of northern Mexico. The deter­mined
French found their gold in contra­band
trade with the Indians and Spanish
settlers of Texas and New Mexico. When
colonial rivalry on the Texas-Louisiana
border ended, and Spain abandoned East
Texas, French settlers and Indian traders
remained.
Texas was the escape hatch for many
Frenchmen who fled Anglo domination
after the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. French
creoles (those born in Louisiana), Cajuns
(Acadians exiled from Nova Scotia in the
mid-1700's), refugees from the 1790 slave
uprisings in Santo Domingo, and emigres
from the French revolution and the N a­poleonic
dictatorship were among those
who entered Texas in the first decade of
the 19th century. Sprinkled among the
farmers, small businessmen, and profes­sionals
were slave traders, pirates, and
exiled soldiers. Other Frenchmen came as
participants of filibuster expeditions.
which tried to wrest control from the tot­tering
Spanish Empire. Some of the ar­rivals
were permanent settlers who later
fought for Texas' independence from
Mexico.
France was the first European power to
recognize the fragile independence of the
new republic. The education, culture, and
business ability of Texas' French minor­ity
helped tame the frontier and soften
the edges of the emerging Southwestern
civilization. Churches, schools, and hos­pitals
founded by French missionaries
benefitted all Texa~s. Frenchmen, pro­tecting
their capital investment in rail­roads
and cattle ranches, helped settle the
western half of the state after the Civil
War.
The early 20th century brought thou­sands
of Louisiana Cajuns across the bor­der
to work in industry and rice farming
along the Gulf Coast. By.this time, French
Texans were largely assimilated, with
only small islands of ethnic identification
still visible. Architecturally, the town of
Castroville, with its unique stone houses
and festival of St. Louis, is perhaps the
most recognizable instance of a surviving
French influence in Texas. But the French
impact on speech, food, and customs has
been more enduring in the Cajun country
of the upper Texas coast: These examples
are the embodiment of a heritage and
tradition which began nearly 300 years
ago.
ROBERT CAVELIER.
SIEUR DE LA SALLE
1685
In 1666, a seemingly unimportant event
at Rouen, France, had a profound impact
on Texas-and much of North American
-history. A restless young Jesuit novice,
Rene Robert Cavelier, decided he was un­suited
to follow in the footsteps of his
pious older brother~ so, he left the college
where he had been enrolled. The 22-year
old adventurer then sailed for Canada,
where his brother, Jean, was a mission­ary.
He spent two years farming, then en­tered
the fur trade, where he ventured
into unexplored lands. After some success
in this field, and even more as a politi­cian,
the young Cavelier returned to
France in 1673 with flattering credentials
from the royal governor of Canada. He
persuaded King Louis XIV to give his
sponsor a monopoly on the fur trade of
New France. Soon the king had also
granted the personable Cavelier a patent
to explore new areas, and conferred on
him the title of Sieur de la Salle. This ac­tion
proved a remarkably good invest­ment
for the French monarchy. The new­ly-
dubbed Sieur de la Salle energetically
explored the length of the Mississippi
River, and on reaching its mouth, claimed
the entire basin for France. He named
this great heartland in honor of the king
-Louisiana.
Returning to France a hero, La Salle
urged the formation of a settlement at the
mouth of the river, as a key to holding
the vast new territory. On August 1, 1684,
he sailed with four ships-the Joli, Belle,
Amiable, and St. Francois-carrying a
total of 300 colonists. La Salle's plan was
to enter the Gulf of Mexico and approach
the entrance of the Mississippi by sea. One
ship, the St. Francois, was lost to Spanish
corsairs en route~ the other three failed to
locate the Mississippi because of bad
weather and worse navigation.
ROBERT CA VELlER, SIEUR DE LA SALLE Fortier, A History of Louisiana
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La Salle landed on the Texas coast­first
near Sabine Pass on New Year's Day
in 1685. Still seeking the mouth of the
Mississippi, he skirted the coast, entered
Matagorda Bay, and arrived at the Lava­ca
River. The Amiable, missing the safe
channel through Pass Caballo, grounded
on the shoals, and was soon destroyed.
The Joli was sailed back to France by its
commander. The Belle was wrecked on
the shore of Palacios Bay after many
trips up and down the Lavaca River. The
remainder of the expedition was stranded
in the Texas wilderness.
La Salle and his men now established
Fort St. Louis on Garcitas Creek about
five miles inland from the Bay. The fort
was built of timber from the wrecked
Amiable, and was armed with eight pieces
of artillery. La Salle used the fort as a
base for exploration in the area, and as a
possible defense against unfriendly In­dians.
Disease and famine reduced the
ranks of the garrison. In January, 1687,
La Salle, with 17 men, left the fort for the
last time in an attempt to reach Canada.
In January, 1689, those remaining at the
fort were attacked by Indians. A few sur­vivors
were rescued by the Alonso de
Leon expedition, which reached the ruins
of the fort on April ZZ, 1689. One or two
others joined Indian tribes and lived out
their lives as savages.
Near the site of present Navasota, La
Salle was murdered by his own men in
March, 1687. Magnificent in his personal
failures, La Salle, by demonstrating cour­age
against odds, has always been an ap­pealing
historical figure. His explorations
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gave France claim to the great Mississippi
valley and Texas. Louisiana, for a time,
was a valuable French possession. The
Texas claim was never very serious, but it
did furnish the United States, after the
Louisiana Purchase, with an excuse for
challenging the Spanish title to Texas.
THE FRENCH
IN EAST TEXAS
1700's
Throughout the first six decades of the
18th century France competed, as best it
could, with Spain for a foothold in Texas.
As early as 1700, Louis Juchereau de St.
Denis had explored the upper Red River.
Fourteen years later he crossed the Texas
wilderness from Natchitoches, Louisiana,
and startled Spanish officials at San Juan
Bautista. The Spanish reacted by sending
an expedition under Domingo Ramon to
establish small missions in East Texas to
protect against whatever threat might
arise from the French in Louisiana. These
missions were temporarily abandoned in
1719 during hostilities between France
and Spain, but were reclaimed two years
later by an expedition under the Marquis
de Aguayo. Aguayo reestablished the
Spanish post at Los Adaes, seven leagues
west of France's fort at Natchitoches, and
a de facto boundary was soon formed at
the Arroyo Hondo halfway between.
France recognized the boundary, but re­fused
to abandon the rich Indian trade
and contraband commerce with the Span­iards
who lived in East Texas. The border
was like a sieve.
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LA SALLE'S LANDING, BY E. M. SCHIWETZ
The French were not about to give up.
In 1719 they sent the La Harpe expedi­tion
to open a post near the present Okla­homa-
Arkansas-Texas boundary. French
traders and soldiers developed excellent
relations with the Indians in eastern and
northern Texas. By mid-century French­men
had crossed the plains to trade brief­ly
in New Mexico, sometimes returning
to Louisiana by the Red River route. De­spite
repeated Spanish decrees and orders
to the contrary, French traders visited
Spanish missions and forts in East Texas
to supply needed goods at reasonable
prices. Catholic priests on both sides of the
Fields, Texas Sketchbook
boundary ministered to both French and
Spanish parishioners, and intermarriage
was frequent.
In 1750 a royal decree ordered the ar­rest
of all Frenchmen in New Spain's
northern provinces. In Texas a French
trader, Joseph Blancpain of Natchitoches,
and his companions, Elias George and An­toine
Dessars, were apprehended on the
lower Trinity River by Spanish troops in
1754, and were taken to a Mexico City
prison. Even so, other traders continued
to enter Spanish dominions to exchange
guns, ammunition, powder, knives, mir­rors,
and brandy for horses, cattle, and
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animal hides. Spain's opposition to inter­national
trade was increased after her
own defeat by Indians on the Red River
in 1759. Spanish officials claimed that
French guns and French officers played
the decisive role. The end of Franco-Span­ish
rivalry in Texas came when that part
of Louisiana west of the Mississippi was
transferred to Spain in 1762.
LOUIS JUCHEREAU
DE ST. DENIS
1714
In 1714, Spanish officialdom was shaken
to its foundations when a young French­Canadian,
Louis Juchereau de St. Denis,
appeared at the lonely outpost of San
Juan Bautista. He had crossed the Texas
wilderness from Natchitoches, Louisiana,
and now the Spaniards wondered what
the French were up to. St. Denis professed
to be interested in trade, but his reluctant
hosts were not convinced of his sincerity.
However, the granddaughter of the pre­sidio
commander found him persuasive
indeed. She married him.
Louis de St. Denis had come to Louisi­ana
in 1699 as a lieutenant in the French
army, elements of which had accompa­nied
Governor d'Iberville's colonizing ex­pedition.
In 1700, St. Denis explored the
Red River as far as Natchitoches, and con­tacted
tribes of the Caddo confederacy.
In 1711, the celebrated Mexican prelate,
Father Francisco Hidalgo, had invited the
French governor of Louisiana to send mis­sionaries
among the East Texas Indian
tribes. In response to that invitation, St.
Denis came three years later, well sup­plied
with trade goods. Unable to find
Hidalgo, the young adventurer journeyed
across Texas to San Juan Bautista.
The trip was a personal success for St.
Denis, but perhaps he pressed his luck
when he returned the following year.
This time he was arrested on smuggling
charges and imprisoned in Mexico City.
He was released to guide the Spanish en­trada
of 1717, which occupied East Texas.
He returned shortly to Natchitoches,
where, in 1720, he assumed command of
the French outpost, St. Jean Baptiste. The
Spanish left East Texas briefly after the
Franco-Spanish War Qf 1719, but re-es­tablished
themselves under the Marquis
de Aguayo expedition in 172 i. St. Denis
was powerless to prevent this re-occupa-
TEXAS AND LOUISIANA IN THE EARLY 18TH CENTURY
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tion, but he proved himself a capable dip­lomat
when he brought about a truce and
established a boundary between Spanish
Texas and French Louisiana.
But the most important thing about this
Frenchman was his influence over the
great Caddo Indian confederacy. To these
people, he was "Kadolahoapi"-Big Leg.
He encouraged French traders to develop
close commercial relations with both the
tribes and the Spanish forts and missions.
Spanish officials were powerless to halt
the influx of cheaper French goods. The
legacy of St. Denis continued after his
death in 1744~ both his son and son-in­law
became commanders of the French
outpost at Natchitoches, serving France,
and later Spain, in Western Louisiana
and Eastern Texas.
University of T exas Archives at Austin
•
FRANCOIS SIMARS
DE BELLISLE
1719
Simars de Bellisle spent his first two years
in Texas as an Indian captive. He later
wrote a colorful account of his adventures
and subsequent ransom by Louis de St.
Denis. The young officer had left France
in 1719 to serve in Louisiana. His ship
landed by mistake in Galveston Bay. He
and four companions attempted to reach
the Mississippi River, by land, but were
enslaved by coastal Indians before they
got out of Texas. De Bellisle alone sur­vived.
He was barely kept alive, forced to
go naked, and used as a slave for 15
months. After his rescue he was taken to
Natchitoches, Louisiana, and later to New
Orleans. In 1721, he accompanied Benard
de la Harpe's expedition to the Texas
coast. Later, de Bellisle settled in New
Orleans, where, in 1753, he became a
member of the Superior Council of Loui­siana.
He returned to France in 1762, and
died there the next year.
BENARD DE LA HARPE
With a background as a minor French
political and military figure, Benard de la
Harpe obtained from the Company of the
Indies a concession of land on the Red
River in Louisiana. He arrived on his land
in August, 1718, and soon established an
Indian trading post further west in what
is now Bowie County, Texas. The follow­ing
year, he sent an employee named du
Rivage up the Red River-accompanied
by four French soldiers and eight Indian
guides-with a quantity of trade goods
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to make alliance with the Indian tribes
and to gain information on the Spanish
settlements to the west. De la Harpe suc­ceeded
with the Wichita Indians-trad­ing
them guns and supplies, training
them in warfare, and winning their con­fidence.
The Frenchmen even gave one
fortified village in present Montague
County a French flag, which the inhabi­tants
proudly flew from a pole in the cen­ter
of the plaza.
In 1720, de la Harpe made a brief re­turn
to France, where he was appointed
commandant of Matagorda Bay on the
Texas coast with orders to occupy it. Hos­tile
Indians prevented the success of this
mission the following year. It was the
final French effort to establish a colony
on the Texas coast.
$~~e..k~
17:U1.
PIERRE MARIE
FRANCOIS DE PAGES
1767
In 1767, 19-year-old Francois de Pages
took leave from the French navy to jour­ney
around the world in search of adven­ture.
He wanted to "explore the Indian
seas for the French navy, to search for a
Northwest Passage in the Russian polar
regions, and to study the little-known
tribes of the world." In his travels he
crossed Texas via Nacogdoches, San An­tonio,
and Laredo. Somewhere between
the Brazos and Colorado Rivers he and his
companions approached a deep stream
TRAVELS
R 0 U N D THE W 0 R L D,
l.fil~1'HE TliARS
1767) 1768, 1769, 1770, 177 1 •
.y
MONSIEUR DE PAGES,
CAPTAIN IN THE FRENCH NAVY, CHEVALIER OF THE
ROYAL AND MILITARY ORDER OF ST. LOUIS,
AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
AT PARIS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
I
YO L U MET H ESE C 0 N'D.
LON DON:
.lUITiD POJ, J M\1I.J.AY. N· 3'. rLIST STI.IIT.
Jf.DCC.)(CI.
TITLE PAGE OF TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD
Barker History Center
which the Spanish had named Quita Cal­zones;
or, in modern translation, "Take
Off Your Knee Breeches Creek." Unfor­tunately,
this colorful name has disap­peared
from usage. While crossing on
rafts, the party discovered that Indians
were trying to steal their horses. How­ever,
this event seems not to have affected
de Pages' view of the Indian as a "Noble
Savage." He eventually completed his
world tour-by way of the Philippines,
India, Arabia, and the Mediterranean
Sea-and was reinstated in the French
navy. He also was awarded the Croix de
Louis.
In 1773-74, de Pages visited the South
Pole region, and two years later, the Arc­tic
zone. He fought with the French navy
in the American Revolution. His life of
adventure ended in Haiti, where he re­tired
as a plantation owner. He was mas­sacred
in a 1793 slave uprising. His ex­periences
were first published in French
in 1773, and were translated in 1791 as
Travels Around the World in the Years
1767-1771. This translation is generally
accepted as the first account in English
describing Texas.
ATHANASE DE MEZIERES
1770
Athanase de Mezieres was a soldier-ex­plorer-
diplomat who abandoned his
French ties to serve a Spanish king. He
was born of a noble family in Paris in
1715. His life of adventure began early.
In 1733, he came to Louisiana. He was a
soldier, Indian trader, and plantation
owner at Natchitoches from 1743 to 1753.
In 1746, he married the daughter of Louis
de St. Denis, but she died in childbirth
two years later. A second wife and two
children died in an epidemic in 1777.
When the Spanish took over Louisiana
west of the Mississippi, de Mezieres
worked for them as commandant at
Natchitoches. As lieutenant governor
from 1769 to 1779, he was instrumental
in winning the North Texas Indian tribes
to Spain. He had a plan for building in
their midst a presidio to be commanded
by Louis de St. Denis, son of the old ex­plorer.
And he hoped to raise 300 French
"chasseurs" in Louisiana to fight the
Apaches.
Between 1770 and 1779, he made no
less than six expeditions through Texas,
reaching as far west as San Antonio. He
made some priceless reports on these trips.
His fluency in French and Spanish was
invaluable. In 1778, de Mezieres was ap­pointed
acting governor of Spanish Texas,
and in 1779, was made governor. He died
at San Antonio on November Z, 1779, be­fore
taking office. He is buried in San
Fernando cemetery.
TEODORO DE CROIX
1778
Teodoro de Croix, a Frenchman in the
service of Spain, performed the most sig­nificant
mission of his career in 1777-78,
when he toured the northern provinces
of New Spain to shore up defenses against
hostile Apaches. He tightened the line of
forts, raised fresh troops, made alliances
with friendly tribes, and reformed cor­rupt
and inefficient governmental admin­istration.
But his policies also r esulted in
the Spanish evacuation of East T exas,
since the French no longer posed a threat.
De Croix was born in his ancestral cas­tle
near Lille, France, in 1730. He entered
the Spanish army at 17, and rose slowly
to the rank of captain. In 1765, he came
to Mexico with his uncle, the Marquis
Carlos Francisco de Croix, who had been
named Viceroy. Teodoro was appointed
inspector of troops and also served as cus­toms
collector at Acapulco. He was noted TEODORO DE CROIX Thomas, Teodoro de Croix
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for both his integrity and his administra­tive
ability . He r eturned to Spain in 1771
as a brigadier of the Royal Guard, but was
back in Mexico in 1776, this time as com­mandant
of the newly-created Provincias
lnternas, an administrative division
stretching from Texas to California. He
visited San Antonio in 1778 to plan war
against the Apaches.
By 1781 , de Croix had largely accom­plished
his reforms. A tenuous peace had
been established with the Apaches. And
with the alliance of Spain and France in
behalf of American independence from
England, de Croix's role in Texas and the
northern provinces was ended. Beginning
in 1783, he served as viceroy of Peru. He
died at Madrid, Spain, in 1792.
PEDRO VIAL
1786
Pedro Vial, a native of Lyons, France,
was an explorer in the service of Spain. In
1786, he was given a two-fold mission by
Governor Cabello: to find a direct route
from San Antonio to Santa Fe, and to test
the attitude of the Comanche and Wichi­ta
Indians to Spanish rule. Vial and a
companion left San Antonio on October
4, and arrived in Santa Fe on May 26,
1787, after many hardships. The gover­nor
of New Mexico then commissioned
him the following year to explore a route
down the Red and Sabine Rivers to
Natchitoches, and to return to Santa Fe
by way of San Antonio. Once again he
was instructed to gather information
about the Indian tribes and to improve
relations with them. This time Vial was
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Loomis &: Na3Cllir, Pedro Vial
back in Santa Fe by August, 1789. In
1792, he blazed a trail from Santa Fe to
St. Louis, returning the following year.
Except for the years 1797-99, when he
lived near St. Louis, Vial operated from
Santa Fe until his death there in 1814.
LOUIS-MICHEL AURY
1816
Louis-Michel Aury had a brief r eign as
kingpin of the Galveston Island pirates,
before he was replaced by the Laffite
brothers. Aury, born in Paris in 1788.
served on French privateers until he ac­quired
enough capital to become master
of his own vessels. In 1816, he went to
Galveston, where he was made resident
commissioner by Jose Manuel de Herrera,
a New Orleans-based rebel who pro­claimed
the island a port of the non­existant
Mexican Republic. Contraband
shipping and slave smuggling into New
Orleans was the rule in Aury's far-from­peaceful
settlement of shacks on the sand.
In April, 1817, he accompanied Mina's
invasion of Mexico, an unsuccessful ef­fort
to liberate that country from Spain.
When Aury returned to Galveston Island
three months later, he had been displaced
by the Laffite brothers. In July, he sailed
away to join another famous privateer,
Gregor Macgregor, on Amelia Island on
the Atlantic coast of Northern Florida.
Aury died four years later on Providence
Island in the South Caribbean Sea.
JEAN LAFFITE
1817
Jean Laffite's pirate "Republic" on Gal­veston
Island contained more than 1,000
persons at the peak of its notoriety in
1818. Two years later, confronted with
the determination of the American gov­ernment
to end his illegal operations, La­ffite
sailed away to Mugeres Island off the
coast of Yucatan, where he continued his
activities until 1826.
Laffite, born in Bayonne, France, was
the son of a French father and a Spanish
mother. Like Aury, he became a privateer
at a relatively youthful age. Until 1814,
when authorities forced him away, his
base of operations was Barataria Island
off the Louisiana coast. The following
year, he and his brother, Pierre, fought
under General Andrew Jackson at the bat­tle
of New Orleans. While in the Crescent
City, Laffite offered his services to the
Spanish Crown as a secret agent. He be­came
familiar with Galveston Island
JEAN LAFFITE, BY E . H. SUYDAM
E.. H. S""'ldo~
• ISl30
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Saxon, Laffite. the Pirate
while on an assignment to rid the falter­ing
Spanish government of some Mexican
privateers headquartered there. Laffite
tactfully won the allegiance of the rene­gades,
and since Spain was gradually los­ing
her Mexican dominion anyway, set
up his own "Republic."
He lived in high style. His home, Mai­son
Rouge, was an impressive red painted
structure with cannons mounted in the
second floor windows. Spain was power­less
to dislodge him from his island re­treat,
and America had no jurisdiction
there. Unauthorized piracy by his lieu­tenants
on Americans ships ultimately
brought his downfall. In May, 1820, La­ffite
and a handpicked crew sailed away
on his favorite vessel, "The Pride." In
1826, mortally ill, he came to the Mexi­can
mainland to die.
CHAMP D'ASI LE
1818
In 1818, a French-led expedition estab­lished
the short-lived Champ d'Asile col­ony
on the lower Trinity River near pres­ent-
day Liberty. Their dream was to res­cue
Napoleon from prison on St. Helena
and make him emperor of Mexico. The
venture was launched in Philadelphia
with about 150 persons under the com­mand
of General Antoine Rigaud. In De­cember,
1817, they sailed on the schooner,
Huntress, reaching Galveston soon after
the new year of 1818. There, they were
met by General Charles Lallemand with
supplies and enough recruits to bring the
total company to about 400 persons. The
expedition was now a motley mingling
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SCENE AT CHAMP n'AISLE
of French exiles, Spaniards, Poles, Mexi­cans,
Americans, and a few "reformed"
pirates.
Proceeding to the lower Trinity, they
established a military type encampment.
Their devotion to military exercises and
maneuvers gave them little time to culti­vate
the necessary food supplies. As a re­sult,
General Lallemand went to New
Orleans to raise money for supplies.
Meanwhile, the Spanish threatened to
attack Champ d' Asile. The rest of the
colony, not wishing to fight on empty
Bayoll Bend Collection at HOllston
stomachs, moved again to Galveston,
While waiting for Lallemand's return,
their temporary camp on the island was
devastated by a hurricane. Laffite pon­dered
briefly on turning the survivors
over to the Spanish for a reward. He real­ized,
however, that such an act would
draw unwanted attention to his domain.
He gave the little band a ship-one he
had captured from Spain-and they
gratefully sailed away. Some colonists
could not wait to escape Laffite's island~
they walked overland to New Orleans.
THE WILLIAM ALLEY
FA MIL Y
1822
William Alley, Sr. was a Frenchman
among Stephen F. Austin's original Texas
colonists. He and his five sons made a sub­stantial
contribution to the success of the
venture. Alley was born in France about
1770, and may have lived for a time in
Pennsylvania before emigrating to Mis­souri
soon after 1800. At St. Genevieve he
and his wife became friends with the
Moses Austin family. In 1821, a son, Raw­son,
settled in Austin's Texas colony. The
following year, other members of the
family came and settled on the Atascosito
Road crossing of the Colorado River, near
the present site of Alleyton, Texas.
A son, John c., was killed by Karanka­wa
Indians at the mouth of Skull Creek
during the winter of 1822-23. The father
was likewise a victim of the Karankawas
the following year. Tragedy continued to
stalk the family. In 1826, a second broth­er,
Thomas, was on a campaign against
the Waco and Tonkawa Indians when his
horse fell and threw him in the Colorado
River, injuring him so badly that he
drowned. Another brother, Rawson, was
sindico procurador (prosecuting attorney)
for the government of Austin's Colony.
He died sometime prior to October 7,
1833, when William B. Travis handled
the probation of his will. In 1845, Wil­liam
A. Alley, Jr. was one of nine Colo­rado
County citizens who nominated
J ames Pinckney Henderson as first gov­ernor
of Texas. This Alley brother died
at Alleyton in 1869. Abraham Alley sur-
vived them all, he died sometime after
1870. Descendants of this pioneer family
still live at Alleyton.
".
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BERLANDIER'S ROUTE
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JEAN lOUIS BERLANOIER'S TRAVELS
IN TElCAS .'" 1828_1829
Berlandier, The Indians of Texas in 1830
JEAN LOUIS BERLANDIER
1828
Jean Louis Berlandier was a botanist
whose monumental work, beginning in
1828, laid the foundation on which the
future study of Texas plant life was
based. Born in France, near its Swiss bor­der,
in 1805, Berlandier was educated in
Geneva. His botany teacher, Auguste­Pyrame
de Candolle, sent Berlandier to
Mexico in December, 1826, to make plant
collections. Late the following year, the
talented young student joined General
Manuel de Mier y Teran's expedition to
Texas. While a member of the expedition,
he made botanical collections near Laredo
in February, 1828, and around San An­tonio,
Gonzales, and San Felipe in the
spring. The specimens were packed and
sent to Geneva for classification and fur­ther
study.
Illness caused Berlandier to return to
Matamoros, but he was back in San An­tonio
later that year to accompany the
Jose Francisco Ruiz expedition to the San
Saba River in November and December.
He returned a third time in 1829 with
Antonio Elonsa to suppress a mutiny at
the La Bahia presidio. He continued on to
visit New Orleans, before .settling per­manently
in Matamoros that November.
Although he married and became a phy­sician,
his botanical trips in Mexico and
Texas continued. During the Mexican
War he was in charge of hospitals in the
Matamoros area. Berlandier drowned
near the city in 1851.
MICHEL AND
PETER MENARD
1829
Closely connected with events of the Tex­as
Revolution and the founding of Gal­veston
were two French-Canadians, the
Menard brothers. Michel Menard was
born in 1805 near Montreal, and at 16,
entered the fur trade with the American
Northwest Fur Company at Detroit.
Three years later he was trading in Illi­nois
and Missouri with his uncle, Pierre
Menard. By 1826, he was in Shreveport,
Louisiana, and in 1829, was trading with
the Indians and Mexicans around Nacog-doches,
Texas. After a brief stay in Illi­nois
in the early 1830's, Michel Menard
came to Texas permanently. He was cred­ited
with helping keep the Indians quiet
during the Texas Revolution. More im­portantly,
he was a delegate to the 1836
Convention from Liberty County, and
was a signer of the Texas Declaration of
Independence. He also helped write the
Republic of Texas' constitution. In No­vember,
1836, he was one of the Texas
commissioners who tried unsuccessfully
to raise a $5,000,000 loan in the United
States.
That same year, Menard bought a
league of land on Galveston Island for
$50,000, and two years later organized
the Galveston City Company with nine
partners. He represented Galveston Coun­ty
in the Texas House of Representatives
in 1840-41. In addition to his other busi­ness
activities, he was also a cotton bro-
MICHEL MENARD
The History of Texas, Houston and Galveston
"
12
PETER MENARD
Wooten, A Comprehensive History of Texas
ker. Menard was a devout Roman Cath­olic.
The first mass in Galveston was
recited in one of his buildings by Father
John Timon in 1838. Menard later sup­ported
the work of Bishop John M. Odin
in reestablishing the Catholic Church in
Texas. Michel Menard died in 1856. To­day,
a Texas county is named in his
honor.
Peter Menard, brother of Michel, came
to Texas in 1833. Menard's Chapel, a
ghost town in Polk County, marks the lo­cation
of his early gristmill. He was
elected to the Committee of Public Safety
for Liberty County in the days preceding
the Texas Revolution, and was a delegate
to the Consultation at San Felipe in 1835.
That winter, he served as a member of
the General Council, and subsequently
negotiated with the Cherokee Indians
during the Revolution. From December,
1835, until November, 1836, he was cap­tain
of the First Regiment of Artillery.
After the war he spent the rest of his life
in Galveston, where he served as the
island city's first postmaster. Peter Me­nard
died in 1861.
DR. NICHOLAS LABADIE
1830
Nicholas Labadie was a French Canadian
who, as a doctor, provided medical serv­ices
to members 9f th~ Texian Army as it
retreated from Gonzales to final victory
at San Jacinto. He wrote an account of
that campaign which appeared in the
Texas Almanac for 1859. He recalled
Sam Houston trying to restore order
among his troops in the aftermath of
their triumph: "Gentlemen, I applaud
your bravery, but damn your manners!"
Like many others, Labadie suffered heavy
personal loss as a result of the revolu­tion.
He contributed many more useful
years, however, as a pioneer builder of
Galveston.
Born in Ontario, in 1802, Labadie origi­nally
sought a career in the Catholic
clergy. He came to Missouri in 1823 to
study for the priesthood, but in 1828, be­gan
the study of medicine in St. Louis.
He entered Texas in 1830, carrying a let­ter
of recommendation to Stephen F. Aus­tin.
When the Texas Revolution began,
Labadie was practicing medicine at Ana­huac.
In March, 1836, he was assigned to
DR. NICHOLAS LABADIE Barker His/ory Center
the First Regiment of Texas Volunteers.
As a Galveston resident after the war, he
continued in the practice of medicine and
operated the first drugstore in the com­munity.
He established a line of sailing
vessels between Galveston and Pensacola,
and later built a major wharf on the Gal­veston
waterfront. During the Civil War
he was medical officer for Texas troops
stationed on the island. Until his death
in 1867, Labadie remained a staunch sup­porter
of the Catholic Church.
I
MOSES ROSE
1836
Moses Rose, whose real name was Louis
Rose, won a permanent-if dubious­niche
in Texas tradition as the sole Alamo
defender who chose escape in preference
to certain death, when given a choice by
Colonel William B. Travis. Rose was an
old Napoleonic war veteran who, upon
viewing a hopeless situation, chose to run
away and fight another day. Hours before
the final Mexican assault began, he es­caped
over the wall and made his way
along deserted streets to the open country­side.
It was Rose who was responsible for
the legend about Travis drawing a line
and inviting his men to cross over if they
wished to die with him in the cause of
liberty.
Rose was born in France about 1785.
He served in Napoleon's army in Russia
and Italy, and came to Texas in 1826. He
worked in the sawmills and as a teamster
around Nacogdoches until he accompa­nied
his friend Jim Bowie to San Antonio
late in 1835. After escaping from the
Alamo on March 3, 1836, Rose returned
to Nacogdoches, where he operated a
butcher shop for the next half dozen
years. He died near Logansport, Louisi­ana,
in 1850.
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
1837
In 1837, John James Audubon, the fa-mous
French naturalist-painter, accom­panied
by his son, John W., visited Gal­veston
Island and nearby islands in a
somewhat disappointing search for new JOHN J. AUDUBON National Audubon Society
13
14
species of birds, animals, and plants. He
also traveled to Houston, then the capitol
of the Texas Republic, and recorded some
lively observations of the bustling village.
Audubon met President Sam Houston
and members of his cabinet. The scientist
was unforgettably impressed with the
striking dress and dominating personality
of the soldier-statesman. The ornithologi­cal
results of the trip can be found in the
fourth volume of his Birds of America,
which gave the first comprehensive de­scription
of many Texas birds in their na­tive
Texas habitat.
John J. Audubon was the Louisiana­born
son of a French sea captain, who
was killed in a Santo Domingo slave up­rising.
Educated in France, the young
artist returned to America to oversee the
family property holdings. Thereafter, he
traveled widely in both Europe and
America, pursuing a brilliant career as a
naturalist and painter until his death in
1851. His son, John Woodhouse Audubon,
followed in his father's occupational foot­steps.
In 1845, John W. came again to
Texas in search of new species of animal
life to include in The Quadrupeds of
North America. He was befriended on
this trip by the noted Texas ranger, Jack
Hays. Four years later, John W. made his
third trip to Texas while enroute to the
California gold fields.
THEODORE LEGER
1838
In 1838, Theodore Ledger authored the
first English language medical text ever
published in Texas. The imposing title
was: Essay on the Particular Influence of
Prejudice in Medicine on the Treatment
of the Disease Most Common in Texas,
Intermittent Fever; Preceded by a Few
General Observations on Medical Theo­ries.
Leger's qualifications for writing
such a book were impressive, too. He had
served on the faculty of a Paris medical
school. On coming to the New World he
served for a time at the Medical College
of Mexico, then established a practice in
New Orleans. He came to Texas in De­cember,
1836, and opened an office at
Brazoria. He was one of the doctors who
attended Stephen F. Austin in the impre­sario's
last illness: In 1838, he published a
short-lived newspaper, The People, in
which he espoused the policies of Mira­beau
Lamar.
PAUL BREMOND
1839
Paul Bremond, New York-born son of a
French father, left his mark on the Texas
landscape as an energetic railroad builder.
He arrived in Texas in 1839, a refugee
from a series of business reverses. At 12
he had left school to begin an apprentice­ship
as a hatter. Six years later, he and a
partner invested their savings in a store of
their own, but an overly-generous credit
policy brought about their ruin. Bremond
started anew-this time on his own-in
Philadelphia. He prospered until the Pan­ic
of 1836 cost him all of his modest
fortune. He loaded a vessel with mercan­tile
goods and sailed for Galveston. Again,
he opened a small store, not far from
the old customs house. Within a year's
PAUL BREMOND
Maxwell, Whistle in the Piney Woods
time, he opened a new and larger store,
in which he conducted an auction and
commission business. In 1842, he moved
his business to Houston, continuing as a
merchant until railroading became his
major pursuit.
In 1852, Bremond addressed a public
meeting at Chappell Hill, in which he
advocated construction of a railroad to
connect Houston with North Texas. In
1856, he led in getting the name of Gal­veston
and Red River Railroad changed
to the Houston and Texas Central. He
served for two years as president of the
reorganized line. After the Civil War,
Bremond formed the Houston East and
West Railway, connecting Houston and
Shreveport. This project was uncompleted
at the time of his death in 1885. The rail­road
town of Bremond in East Central
Texas is named for him. A brother, John,
became a noted Austin banker whose
unique legacy is the famous Bremond
Block-a collection of architecturally dis­tinctive
old houses not far from the state
capitol. The six homes, built by the same
family at different times after 1850, are
on the National Register of Historic Build­mgs.
FREDERIC GAILLARDET
French journalist Frederic Gaillardet vis­ited
Texas in 1839. Accompanied by Al­phonse
de Saligny, the French diplomatic
representative in Texas, he called upon
General Sam Houston and President Mi­rabeau
Lamar. Then the two Frenchmen
visited the principal Texas towns and vil­lages.
Susbsequently, Gaillardet wrote a
lively account of his travels, replete with
interesting character sketches of the peo­ple
he had met. He thought the flower­carpeted
Texas prairies were magnificent
-"the most delightful sight the eye can
behold." His French eye observed only
one deficiency: a shortage of women. His
enthusiastic articles, published in both
Paris and New York newspapers, sug­gested
that European over-population
might be averted by encouraging immi­gration
to Texas. These writings were in­fluential
in securing France's recognition
of the new Republic.
FRANCOIS GUILBEAU
A French-born wine merchant of San An­tonio,
Texas, is credited with saving the
vineyards of France from extinction in the
years 1875-78. A root disease called phyl­loxera
was killing the grapevines. Fran­cois
Guilbeau and Matthew Knox, a
San Antonio nurseryman, began shipping
sturdy mustang grape plants to France,
where the disease-resistant stock was then
grafted to the endangered vines.
Guilbeau was born in Brittany in 1813.
After serving in the French Army in Al­giers,
he came to San Antonio and-with
a partner-opened a bakery and wine
shop on Main Plaza in 18~9. He was
mayor pro tern of San Antonio in 1841,
and the following year was made the
French vice consul, a post he held until
GUILBEAU'S STORE ON MAIN PLAZA IN SAN ANTONIO
1859. Beginning in 1844, he assisted Hen­ri
Castro in the settlement of his colony
west of San Antonio.
By the mid-1840's, Guilbeau had a far­flung
business empire, with ox-trains run­ning
to the Texas Gulf Coast and to Mon­terrey
and Chihuahua in Old Mexico. He
also had a magnificent French-style man­sion
on South Main Street, with furnish­ings
imported from France and hauled by
ox-cart from the port at Old Indianola.
Robert E. Lee was a visitor in this home.
Guilbeau performed additional public
service as an alderman in 1854-55, and
again in 1870. In 1876, he became first
president of the French Mutual Benevo­lent
Society. When he died in 1879, he
was one of the wealthiest men in Texas.
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16
ALPHONSE DE SALIGNY
Barker, The French Legation in Texas, Vol. I
ALPHONSE DE SALIGNY
"Count" Alphonse de Saligny's diplomatic
career as charge d'affaires to the infant
Texas Republic was interrupted in 1839
by a comic opera quarrel with an Austin
innkeeper named Bullock. The innkeep­er's
pigs had invaded the "Count's" quar­ters,
and were shot by a servant. Bullock
gave the servant a thrashing, for which
de Saligny demanded satisfaction from
the government. Texas ignored the mat­ter
and the diplomat went to New Or­leans.
He succeeded in convincing the
French minister of finance that Texas
should not receive a $5,000,000 loan. He
failed, however, to secure a break in diplo­matic
relations between the two coun-tries.
De Saligny was followed in his post
by Viscount Jules de Cramayel, and
French-Texan affairs were smoothed over.
Alphonse de Saligny had been a secre­tary
at the French embassy in Washing­ton
when his government sent him to
Texas to compile a report on the situation
there. On his recommendation, France
extended the much-desired diplomatic
recognition to Texas, and de Saligny was
named charge. In 1840, he built the
French Legation at the new capitol, Aus­tin.
Today, this restored building is one
of the state's historic showplaces. After
the Pig War episode had ended, Saligny
came again to Texas.in 1844, attempting
"THE FRENCH LEGATION," BY E .• M. SCHIWETZ
to prevent its annexation to the United
States. The French not only feared that
annexation would lead to Anglo domina­tion
of the North American continent,
but would endanger a potentially lucra­tive
trade relationship with an independ­ent
Texas nation. When Texas joined the
Union in 1846, Saligny returned to
France. He served his country as minister
to Holland in 1850-51, and as minister
ad interim in Mexico from 1860 to 1863.
He was instrumental in precipitating
French intervention into Mexican affairs
which resulted in the ill-fated reign of
Emperor Maximilian and his wife, Car­lotta.
Saligny died in France in 1888.
\ ,
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THE FRANCO·TEXIAN
TREATY
On September 25, 1839, France became
the first European country to recognize
the independence and sovereignty of the
new Republic of Texas. Since the dark
days of 1836, Texas had sought foreign
recognition, financial aid, and new set­tlers
to strengthen herself against possible
renewed Mexican invasion. J. Pinckney
Henderson's mission to London and Paris
was aided by a brief confrontation be­tween
France and Mexico. In 1838, the
French Navy clamped a blockade along
the Mexican coast from Yucatan to the
Rio Grande in order to enforce certain
private claims by French citizens against
the Mexican government. One of the
claimants was a French baker whose pas­try
shop in Mexico City had been ran­sacked
by celebrating Mexican soldiers.
The entire episode was quickly dubbed
the "Pastry War."
Smuggling through South Texas ports
became a highly profitable venture. Tex­ans
were fearful that the contraband trade
would endanger their chances for French
recognition; so, they sent a militia force
to halt the illegal traffic. Near Corpus
Christi the troops chased an outlaw band
from a cliff overlooking the bay. In their
haste the smugglers left behind about 100
barrels of flour. To this day, that place is
known as Flour Bluff. The claims against
Mexico finally were adjusted, following
British intervention. When the French
commander, Admiral Charles Baudin,
visited Houston and Galveston in May,
1839, he received a hero's welcome from
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THE FRANCO-TEXIAN TREATY
T exas State Archives
the Texans. The French mISSIOn in the
United States sent Alphonse de Saligny
to make a report on the independence of
Texas. Saligny's report was a favorable
one.
A treaty was formally proclaimed in
February, 1840. It established trade on
a "most favored nation" basis-Texan
duties on French wines were reduced by
two-fifths, on silks by one-half, and Texas
cotton was to enter France on the same
basis as American cotton-20 francs per
100 kilograms. The Franco-Texian treaty
of 1839 lapsed in 1846, when Texas was
annexed to the United States.
THE FRANCO·TEXIENNE
B ILL
1841
Fear of marauding Plains Indians caused
Texans to consider seriously a proposal to
establish a series of French-manned out­posts
on the western frontier in 1841.
President Sam Houston believed Texas
too weak to protect its borders, and lis­tened
willingly when a pair of Frenchmen
offered to build 20 forts to be manned by
8,000 French families. In return the
French would get a 3,000,000-acre grant
in West Texas, mining privileges thereon
-with payment of a 15 percent royalty,
trading concessions at Santa Fe and Chi­huahua,
and the introduction of duty free
goods.
A bill to implement this proposed 20-
year agreement was introduced into the
Texas Congress on January 12, 1842. It
soon passed the House of Representatives,
but died in the Senate after it became a
political football between pro-and anti­Houston
forces. Opponents saw the idea as
a threat to the sovereignty of the Repub­lic.
The bill was introduced again in 1842,
but by this time, Houston's enthusiasm
had waned and the bill died. Alphonse
de Saligny was indignant over the matter,
and used the Pig War as an excuse to go
sulking to New Orleans.
JOHN M. ODIN. FIRST
BISHOP OF GALVESTON
John M. Odin was the first of many
French priests who pioneered the restora­tion
of the Roman Catholic Church in in­dependent
Texas. Odin was born in 1800
17
18
at Hauteville, near Lyons, France. He was
educated in several private schools, until
entering the seminary at St. Irene in
1819. In 1822, he volunteered for a Loui­siana
mission, and was sent to the Vin­centian
Seminary at The Barrens, near
St. Louis, Missouri. He was ordained to
the priesthood in 1823, but continued on
duty at the seminary as a faculty mem­ber.
For five years he was a parish priest
at Cape Girardeau. During this time he
made a trip to Europe, raising funds for
missionary work among the Indians, and
encouraging other priests to come to
America. In 1841, he was named Vice­Prefect
Apostolic for Texas. Now began
the task of revitalizing the Catholic
BISHOP JOHN M . ODIN Diocese of Galveston
Church in Texas after years of disorgani­zation.
From San Antonio Odin petitioned
the Texas Congress to grant the Catholic
Church there all buildings and lands
which had belonged to the church under
the Spanish government. In Austin he
made a favorable impression on the con­gressmen,
served for a time as chaplain of
the senate, and had his petition enacted
into law. In 1842, he was made Vicar
Apostolic of Texas, and three years later,
returned to Europe to recruit more priests.
He returned with 15 new missionaries,
plus a half million Belgian bricks which
had been donated with the freight pre­paid
to Texas.
Expansion of · chu~ch actIvIty was so
rapid that, in 1847, the Diocese of Galves­ton
was created. This district covered all
of Texas, and Odin was appointed to ad­minister
it. The German traveler and
journalist, Ferdinand Roemer, said of the
bishop that he "lives in the style of the
old gospel preachers, inasmuch as he trav­els
continually about the country, visiting
the Catholics. Fearlessly and tirelessly he
traverses the lonesome prairies on horse­back,
and through his restless energy and
unassuming, charming personality has
earned for himself the universal respect
of those not of his faith." Odin also
brought scores of teaching nuns and
brothers to Texas as part of an aggressive
parochial education program. In 1861, he
was promoted to Archbishop of New Or­leans.
In 1869, he attended the Vatican
Council in Rome. He became ill there,
and r eturned to his native village in
France, where he died in 1870.
FRENCH CATHOLICS
AND TEXAS
Under Spanish and Mexican rule. Texas
had been-by law-a Roman Catholic
province. After the war for independence
from Mexico, Texans rejected the idea of
an official religion. There was a strong
tide against Catholicism because of its as­sociation
with a government that Texans
had grown to hate. Certainly, a cleric of
Spanish or Mexican ancestry was work­ing
under a heavy handicap.
It was French interest and French
money that ultimately restored a badly
demoralized Catholic Church in Texas.
Continued direction from the Mexican
Diocese of Monterrey was impossible, so
Texas was placed under jurisdiction of the
Archdiocese of New Orleans, which sent
Father John Timon as Prefect Apostolic.
Timon and his Vice Prefect, John M.
Odin, began their efforts in 1841, and
soon scores of priests and nuns were
drawn to this mission field from French
orders. Father Odin became Bishop of
Galveston in 1847, and was succeeded in
that capacity by another Frenchman,
Father Clande Dubuis in 1861. Both men
visited their homeland in search of volun­teers
to minister to the widely scattered
Texas Catholics. Financial support came
from the Society for the Propagation of
the Faith at Lyons, France.
During the 1840's and '50's, convents,
churches, schools, hospitals, and orphan­ages
were established across Texas by sev­eral
religious orders. The Vincentians
built houses in San Antonio and Galves­ton
in the 1840's. These were followed by
the Ursuline Sisters from New Orleans,
who founded girls' schools in Galveston
(1847) and San Antonio (1851). The Ob­lates
arrived in 1849, and built schools in
the Rio Grande valley during the 1850's.
The Society of Mary Brothers came from
France in 1851 to open a boys' school at
San Antonio. St. Mary's University is a
direct successor of that small school. Then
came the Incarnate Word and the Divine
Providence Sisters from France after the
Civil War. The Incarnate Word group,
from Lyons, founded hospitals in Galves­ton
and San Antonio. Incarnate Word
OLD ST. MARY'S COLLEGE AT SAN ANTONIO
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College in San Antonio also resulted from
their efforts. The Divine Providence Sis­ters,
from Lorraine, established schools in
Galveston, Corpus Christi, and Castroville,
plus Our Lady of the Lake College in San
Antonio.
These orders brought the benefits of
education, medical care, and religious in­struction
to a new frontier. The manpow­er
and money supplied by the French to
these causes represented a very substan­tial
contribution to the settlement and
civilization of Texas.
D.R.T. Library at the Alamo
I
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University of Texas Archives at Austin
HENRI CASTRO
1842
Henri Castro was one of the most success­ful
empresarios in the Texas Republic.
Born in France of Portuguese Jewish an­cestry
in 1786, he accompanied Napoleon
I on a visit to Spain as a Guard of Honor.
In 1814, Castro fought in defense of Paris
against invading European allies. Four
years later, he was named an officer in
the Legion of Honor. In 1827, he arrived
in the United States, became an Ameri­can
citizen, and was consul for the King­dom
of the Two Sicilies at Providence,
Rhode Island. Returning to France in
1838, he became a partner in the banking
house of Lafitte and Company. There, he
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20
attempted to negotiate a $5,000,000 loan
for the Republic of Texas.
While in Texas in 1842, Castro entered
into a contract with the Texan govern­ment
to settle a colony of 600 French
families on two grants: the first west of
San Antonio, and the second bordering
the Rio Grande on land disputed by Texas
and Mexico. He was remarkably success­ful
in his colonization scheme, although
opposed by French diplomats in Texas,
and by the French government. By 1847,
he had contracted for, and settled, 485
families and 457 single men on his grant
along the Medina River. There, he estab­lished
Castroville in 1844, as well as the
nearby villages of Quihi in 1845, Van­denburg
in 1846, and D'Hanis in 1847.
In the process, Castro spent his consider­able
fortune and impoverished his family.
While attempting to return to France
during the Civil War, Castro died of yel­low
fever at Monterrey, Mexico.
CASTRO'S COLONY
Amidst elegant surroundings in Henri
Castro's Paris office at 18 Rue de Lafitte,
prospective colonists applied for land in
the empresario's Texas domain. From that
office, Castro had written brochures to
attract prospective settlers not only in
France, but in the German Rheinland
and in the North Countries. His agents
looked everywhere for dependable and in­dustrious
workers. The contract with the
Texan government called for the intro­duction
of 600 families or single men over
17 within three years. Each family was to
receive 640 acres, while single men got
half that. Land titles would be issued only
after the colonists built a ca bin and
fenced and cultivated 15 acres. According
to the contract, Castro was to get ten sec­tions
of land for each 100 families
brought to Texas, and the same number
of half sections for each 100 single men.
Each 100 families was to have one section
of land for a church. Castro had to intro­duce
one third of the entire number with­in
one year or forfeit the contract with
the Texan government. No criminals or
people of bad character were to be intro­duced,
and the colonists were prohibited
from selling liquor, powder, and firearms
to the Indians. Castro was also allowed to
bring 400 additional families upon one
year's notice to the government.
Under contracts between Castro and
the colonists, the empresario was to pro­vide
transportation and passage to Texas
in return for one-half of each family'S
grant. Each family was to have the neces­sary
clothing, farm tools, means of pas­sage
($32 for the voyage) , and to make a
$10 deposit of good faith. One year's sub­sistence
was necessary for each family.
The first ship, the Ebro, sailed from Le
Havre with 114 French colonists in the
fall of 1842, and arrived at Galveston in
January, 1843. Then they proceeded to
Port Lavaca and San Antonio, via oxcart,
where they were given provisional land
by Secretary of State Anson Jones.
Through 1847, a total of 2,134 colonists
settled in the Castro grant. Until Castro­ville
was founded in September, 1844,
many of these people lived at San Anto­nio.
They received help in possessing their
land when Captain Jack Hays and five
Texas Rangers accompanied the pioneers
to layout their town. To each family,
Henry Castro gave a town lot, and a farm
of 640 acres on the Medina River. He also
provided material for building a house
and enough rations on which to live until
a crop was made.
As soon as the town was established,
Castro appointed an immigrant agent in
Galveston to help his colonists proceed to
Castroville. He then hurried to France to
successfully defend himself against
charges of fraud before the Royal Court of
Colmar. By late 1845, Castro was bank­rupt
and transferred the entire coloniza­tion
project to a group of Belgian capital­ists.
He then returned to Texas with his
family-but as the agent of the new com­pany.
His colonists eventually were given
their land titles by the Texas government,
but Castro failed to regain his fortune.
"Castroville is a French town with a
German flavor growing out of Texas soil."
-Julia Nott Waugh
CASTROVILLE
1844
Named for its founder, Henri Castro, Cas­troville
is a French Alsatian village 25
miles west of San Antonio. Founded in
September, 1844, the community faced
drouth and epidemics during its first
years of existence and was visited by In­dian
raids until the 1880's. The 558 head­rights
issued the first year went mainly
to immigrants from the province of Al­sace
in France. Despite adverse condi-
THE OLD ST. LOUIS CHURCHES
tions, these colonists clung to their wil­derness
homes. They built small stone
houses with steep pitched roofs, and laid
the cornerstone for the St. Louis Catholic
Church soon after their arrival. Castro­ville
soon had a brewery, gristmill, cotton
gin, and shingle mill, as well as stores
and a large, comfortable inn for weary
travelers on the busy road from San An­tonio
to Del Rio and points west. In 1848,
the town became the seat of newly-creat­ed
Medina County.
The inveterate traveler, Frederic Olm­sted,
was charmed with Castroville in its
idyllic setting. In 1857, he wrote: "The
cottages are scattered prettily, and there
Courtesy of Ruth Lawler
are two churches-the whole aspect being
as far from Texas as possible. It might sit
for the portrait of one of the poorer vil­lages
of the upper Rhone valley." When
the railroad by-passed Castroville in the
1880's, the town became a quiet farming
community where people clung to their
Alsatian dialect and traditions. The dis­tinctive
stone houses have been carefully
maintained, and often enlarged. The St.
Louis Church has been twice rebuilt, the
last time in 1870. The annual St. Louis
Day festival is attended by tens of thou­sands
of visitors who help preserve the
ethnic and civic pride of Castroville's
people.
THEODORE GENTILZ
One of Texas' most noted artists, Theodore
Gentilz, came with Henri Castro's colo­nists
in 1844. Born in Paris in 1819, he
received an art education in his native
city, then entered Castro's employment as
a surveyor. By 1846, Gentilz was repre­senting
the empresario in San Antonio,
and the following year, he laid out the
town of D'Hanis. In 1849, he journeyed
to Paris to marry Marie Fargeix, then the
couple returned to live in San Antonio.
Although he was listed as a merchant
in the 1850 census, Gentilz' life was soon
devoted to art and teaching. He spent
more than three decades on the faculty of
St. Mary's College. His wife taught voice
and piano in the family home on North
Flores Street. Gentilz' paintings have be­come
a famous and highly cherished part
of the Texas cultural heritage. His realis­tic
portrayal of Mexican and Texan life
in the mid-19th century reflect great tech­nical
skill. His San Antonio scenes-most
of them small and very colorful-pre­serve
the folk customs and the physical
appearance of a frontier town a century
ago. He died in his adopted city in 1906.
FATHER CLAUDE·MARIE
DUBUIS
1847
Father Claude-Marie Dubuis was the first
priest at Castroville, where he was assisted
by Father Emmanuel Domenech. Father
Claude was captured twice by Comanches
and escaped both times. Upon hearing
that he was a chief in his church the In­dians
treated him with respect. Dubuis
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22
BISHOP CLAUDE DUBUIS
Archdiocese of San Antonio
felt the Comanche warriors were "prodi­gies
of valor and daring." This intrepid
missionary was born in 1817 at Coutou­vre,
France, and was trained at the semi­nary
in Lyons. He was ordained in 1844,
and came to America two years later. Af­ter
a period of orientation at The Barrens,
near St. Louis, Dubuis was assigned to a
parish which included Castroville, New
Braunfels, and Fredericksburg. His resi­dence
was Castroville, his home there a
picket hut. His furniture, he said, con­sisted
of scorpions and a cowhide to sleep
on. Church attendance began to improve;
a circumstance which Dubuis attributed
to an 18-month-Iong drouth, and a series
of misfortunes that had befallen people
who worked on Sunday.
Sometime after 1850 Dubuis was sent
to France on recruiting duty. When he
got ready to bring his volunteers back to
Texas, he lacked enough money to pay
their passage. He went to the ship's cap­tain
and offered his services as a doctor.
The ship had been at sea only a short
time when passengers began complaining
of constipation. Discovering that there
were no laxatives aboard, Dubuis stirred a
mixture of molasses and seawater which
he fed the victi~ns. ~oon they were either
cured, or too sick to care whether they
were constipated or not. A woman who
was about to give birth presented a more
difficult situation, but he saved his repu­tation
with quick thinking. Dubuis, pre­tending
to be overworked, told the hus­band
impatiently to go and find an old
woman to assist at the delivery. When
the ship landed the captain gave Dubuis
a splendid letter of recommendation.
In 1854 the missionary-priest was or­dered
to San Antonio, where he was in­strumental
in the construction of St.
Mary's Church. When John M. Odin be­came
Bishop of New Orleans, Dubuis was
appointed to succeed him as Bishop of
Galveston. He held this office until 1881.
During that time he worked tirelessly
establishing churches, schools, and con­vents.
He traveled constantly throughout
the length and breadth of his vast dio­cese,
even to the Indian frontiers where
no man dared go alone. His parishioners
vowed that if his horse ever died they
would erect a statue of the animal, but he
wouldn't oblige. Years later Domenech
wrote that "Bishop Dubuis was hard on
the good God himself, and didn't hesitate
to force Him to work miracles." Dubuis
returned to France in 1882, and died there
in 1895.
FA THE REM MAN U E L
DOMENECH
Father Emmanuel Domenech, another
pioneer Catholic missionary in Texas, is
best remembered for his wry observations
of the land and its inhabitants. Born in
Lyons, France, in 1826, he came to Amer­ica
in 1846 with 14 other priests whom
Bishop Odin had recruited. After a year's
study at The Barrens, Domenech reached
Texas in 1847. The village of Houston he
described as being infested with red ants
and Methodists. He compared the coastal
prairies to "the wild and melancholy
grandeur of the desert. In these endless
solitudes there reigns a sullen silence,
which fills the heart with a deep, distress­ing
sense of loneliness." He stayed for a
time in San Antonio as a guest of the
Spanish priests. His room was a converted
granary with a single window overlook­ing
a nearby stream where the women
came to bathe each day. In consequence
he said he had to keep the window closed
at all times. In 1848 Domenech was as­signed
to Castroville, where further tribu­lations
awaited him. On searching for
something to eat he found only "a little
pork, together with a provision of dried
vemson which I took for the hooves. I
covered them with a mixture of fat, pep­pers,
and vinegar which burned my
mouth and prevented me from tasting
this frightful food." Another time, when
meat was in short supply, he shot a croco­dile
and cut a steak from its tail. The most
exotic French sauce he could concoct
didn't help much; the dish "was of a
strong flavor."
After a visit to France in 1850, Dome­nech
was assigned to a parish at Browns­ville,
Texas, on the Mexican border. Here,
the most conspicuous sin was public
drunkenness, "although the majority of
the drunken men I encountered were
Mexicans little accustomed to alcoholic
drinks, or Americans belonging to soci­eties
of temperance." He was astonished
when, at a public banquet, a distin­guished
judge proposed a toast: "To Jus­tice-
modified by circumstances." But
Domenech's role was not altogether a
critical one. Much interested in the tradi­tions
of his Mexican parishioners, he was
one of the first men to discover and call
attention to the folk drama of Mexico­especially
the Los Pastores tradition at
Christmas-time. III health forced the
French priest to return to his native land
in 1852, but he returned again with the
French expeditionary forces to Mexico in
1861. He dispensed alms to the poor, and
served briefly as chaplain to Emperor
Maximilian. Domenech died in France
in 1886. In 1857 he had published his
journal describing adventures in Texas.
Recalling early days in San Antonio, he
evoked with beauty a way of life long
since vanished: "On the threshold of the
cabins, fires were lighted to cook their
evening meals; women were singing and
smoking; young girls, half clothed,
danced and frolicked ; men leaning lazily
against fig-trees played their guitars and
dreamed en soupirant. This picturesque
scene framed splendidly the white silhou­ette
of the moorish tower and of the dome
of the church, which dominated the land­scape."
FRANCOIS GIRAUD
Francois Giraud was a pioneer in the field
of ecology long before the term came into
popular usage. In 1852 he per~uaded San
Antonio's city fathers to reserve land
around San Pedro Springs as a municlpal
park. It became, after the Boston Com­mons,
the second oldest public play­ground
in America. Giraud laid out San
Pedro Park five years before Frederic L.
Olmsted, "The Father of Conservation in
America," drew plans for New York City's
Central Park. This farsighted Frenchman
wanted similar treatment' for the head­waters
of the San Antonio River, but the
land there was offered for sale surrepti­tiously,
and one of the aldermen bought
it. Had not public-spirited George W.
Brackenridge later acquired part of this
property and made it available to the city,
San Antonio would not now have one of
the finest parks in the Southwest.
Giraud was born in Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1818. His parents were na­tives
of Bordeaux. The young man later
studied engineering in Paris. He came to
Texas in 1847 with his father, who was
FRANCOIS GIRAUD
Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers
then the French consul in San Antonio.
The young Giraud became the Alamo
City's first city engineer in 1848. In this
capacity he delineated the boundaries of
the five Spanish missions which had been
adjudicated to the Roman Catholic
Church. He was no less talented as an
architect, and surely no other man has
impressed his style so firmly on any Texas
city. When Father Claude-Marie Dubuis
brought eight Ursuline nuns to San An­tonio
in 1851, they were quartered in a
building complex designed by Francois
Giraud. In 1857 he designed the buildings
of St. Mary's College. After Civil War
service as a captain of engineers in the
Confederate Army, Giraud returned to
San Antonio, where he finished the de­sign
of the Ursuline Convent. Then he
23
24
built simultaneously St. Joseph's Church
for the German Catholics, and San Fer­nando
Cathedral for those who spoke
Spanish. Both were dedicated in 1868.
San Fernando is still a landmark. It was
built around an ancient Mexican church,
with the new structure enclosing the old,
so that services continued without inter­ruption
during construction. Giraud's
final public service was a stint as mayor
of San Antonio, 1872 to 1875. He died
in 1877, survived by his widow, the for­mer
Apolinaria Trevino.
FRENCH ARCHITECTURE
IN TEXAS
The French influence on architecture in
Texas was contributed primarily by
planters who had migrated from Louisi­ana,
bringing with them certain French
traditions in building construction. These
houses were often of the raised-cottage
type, with an above-ground basement,
living quarters at the second level, and a
flight of stairs winding from the ground
to the front gallery. Often, the gallery
completely encircled the house. These
deep-shaded verandas and elevated main
floors were evolved in the hot, damp cli­mate
of the French West Indies and Loui­SIana.
Double doors at the front entrance,
floor-length casement windows, and man­sard
roofs with round-headed dormers are
further examples of French architectural
influence. The roofs were frequently
brightened with colorful designs in the
shingles, and crowned with cast iron, or
tin, trimmings. The mansard style was
brought from Napoleon Ill's France, and
readily adapted to the Texas environment.
Although it is not raised above ground
level, the French Legation in Austin is
perhaps the best surviving model of the
French cottage in Texas. Other examples
of the French variety are seen in the
Walter Bremond House at Austin, the
raised-level Sedberry House at Jefferson,
and in Francois Giraud's extant buildings
in San Antonio-notably the old Ursuline
Academy. At Weatherford are found a
number of houses bearing an unmistake­able
French flavor, and at Castroville are
nearly one hundred small stone cottages
in the distinctiv~ Als~tian style. Although
time has taken its toll of such structures,
those which survive lend a tlelightful ac­cent
to their often prosaic surroundings.
THE WALTER BREMOND HOUSE AT AUSTIN
Austin-Travis County Collection
THE ICARIAN COLONY
1848
Europe in the first half of the 18th cen­tury
had numbers of idealists who
dreamed of establishing utopian colonies
on distant frontiers. One of these men was
Etienne Cabet who, in 1848, led 69 mem­bers
of the Icarian Society of France to a
10,000-acre domain in North Texas. The
colonists were unrepresentative of French
life and culture. Most were writers and
journalists who had been swayed by Ca­bet's
book, Voyage in lcaria, published in
1848. Theirs was to be a socialist state
dedicated to perfect democracy and uni­versal
suffrage.
Cabet's followers built 30 or 40 log
cabins in the Peters Colony about ten
miles southwest of present Denton. They
sent for relatives, and were fairly well es­tablished
until rains ruined their wheat
crop in 1849. Unaccustomed to the stren­uous
life, many died as a result of famine
and disease. Cabet moved his remaining
followers to Nauvoo, Illinois, leaving be­hind
a single colonist, Louis Gouhenis,
who became a pioneer photographer in
Dallas.
THE GR ENE T FA MIL Y
1851
Honore Grenet, born at Ardonne, France,
in 1823, came to San Antonio in 1851.
The following year, he bought property
on Nacogdoches Street and entered the
mercantile business. In 1879, he bought
the Alamo property from the Catholic
Church. On the site formerly occupied by
the old rectory, he built a store which was
GRENET'S CASTLE
popularly known as "Grenet's Castle." He
advertised as a "Wholesale Grocer and
General Commission Merchant, Importer
of Wines, Liquors, and Cigars. Dry Goods,
Boots and Shoes, China, Crockery, Cloth­ing,
Glassware and Fancy Goods." He
died in 188Z, leaving an estate of
$337,000.
A son, Edward Grenet, became an in­ternationally-
known artist. Born in 1856,
he studied art in Paris. He won numerous
medals in London and at provincial ex­positions
in France. His Texas landscapes
and portraits of early San Antonians have
considerable historic value. In 1879, Ed­ward
Grenet married Eugenie, the daugh­ter
of Francois Guilbeau. France was his
home during the last years of his life. He
died at Paris in 19Z8.
JEROME NAPOLEON
BONAPARTE. JR.
1853
Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, Jr. was a
West Point graduate who served on the
D.R.T. Library at thp Alamo
Texas frontier for 14 months beginning
in January, 1853. His father, Emperor
Napoleon's youngest brother, had come to
America and wooed the beautiful SYsan
May Williams, a Baltimore socialite.
Their courtship and marriage was the talk
of the early 19th century social circles.
Their first child, Jerome, Jr., was born in
1830. He was graduated from West Point
in 185Z and commissioned in the Mount­ed
Riflemen. He was stationed first at Fort
Ewell, later at Fort Inge. His letters from
Texas, preserved at the Maryland His­torical
Society in Baltimore, shed con­siderable
light on the trials and tribula­tions
of army life on the border.
The young lieutenant had a fabulous
military tradition to live up to, and per­haps
he felt that South Texas offered only
limited opportunity for glory. He re­signed
his commission in 1854, and went
to France, where he was recognized as a
member of the Bonaparte family. Joining
the army of his cousin, Napoleon III, he
saw many years of active service, starting
with the Crimean War. He became a
heavily decorated colonel, but at the fall
of the empire in 1871 , he barely escaped
the guillotines of the commune. He hasti­ly
returned to the United States, where he
soon married Mrs. Caroline Edgar, a
granddaughter of Daniel Webster. With
the exception of a prolonged stay in Paris
from 1873 to 1879, Bonaparte spent the
rest of his life as a respected, wealthy
gentleman farmer at Pride's Crossing,
Massachusetts. He died there in 1893.
LA REUNION
1854
In the mid-19th century many French­men
became intrigued with a philosophy
which had first been expounded by
Charles Fourier. This viewpoint held that
social arrangements resulting from in­dividualism
and competition were essen­tially
imperfect and even immoral. It was
argued that a cooperative society would
lead to greater social harmony and happi­ness.
Victor Considerant became the lead­ing
prophet of this new gospel. After
service as an artilleryman in the French
Army, he had become a political fire­brand.
He edited a Socialist newspaper,
and later was elected to the French As­sembly,
but in 1849 his outcry against
Louis Napoleon brought him exile. In
185Z-53 he visited the United States and
came to Texas. Impressed by what he saw,
he wrote a book extolling the opportuni­ties
which abounded in this new land. He
formed a company for the purpose of
buying and colonizing 57,000 acres of
land. Two thousand acres were acquired
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26
on a limestone outcropping near Dallas,
and to this location Considerant brought
settlers in 1854. They came by ship from
Antwerp to Houston, then by ox-cart to
Dallas.
The administration of the colony was
placed in the hands of Francois Cantagrel,
who, like Considerant, had been a polit­ical
activist in his native France. He had
even spent some time in prison for his be­liefs.
The new colony was named La
Reunion, and its 350 residents were a well
educated and highly skilled class. But
problems arose. Not only was the soil
poor, but only a half dozen of the colo­nists
had any farming experience. Canta­grel
was said to have exclaimed: "Mon
VICTOR CONSIDERANT Dallas Public Library
Dieu! I am sent here to direct an agricul­tural
colony, and have no agriculturalists
to direct." In 1856 a late winter blizzard,
followed by a summertime plague of
grasshoppers, added to the miseries. Petty
jealousy, the growth of individualism, and
lack of business management ability
spelled final ruin. By 1858 members be­gan
melting away to Dallas and nearby
communities. A handful returned to Eu­rope.
Considerant went to San Antonio,
hoping to try a similar experiment on
company-owned land in Southwest Texas.
While living in the Alamo City he be­came
an American citizen. His home on
Concepcion Road was a gathering place
for the French tolorty there. In 1868 he
returned to France, and die.d at Paris in
1893, still active in public affairs. Canta­grel
also returned to France, but in 1880,
his son appeared at Seymour, Texas, as
an employee of a French-owned copper
smelting enterprise. The young man was
murdered in a saloon brawl. His father
died in 1887.
The La Reunion settlers who stayed
behind made impressive contributions to
the business and cultural life of Dallas.
They also influenced social life. At first,
Dallasites were critical of their French
neighbors for having Sunday night
dances. This seemed a desecration of the
Sabbath, but when it was explained that
Europeans took only one day for relaxa­tion-
while Americans began their re­spite
on Saturday noon-this Sunday
night custom was quickly accepted. It
became widely popular, in fact, through­out
the Dallas area.
JULIEN REVERCHON A History of Dallas County
PERSONALITIES
AT LA REUNION
La Reunion attracted some colorful per­sonalities
with its promise of a wilderness
utopia. Maxime Guillot established in
1854 a wagon factory that was perhaps
the first manufacturing enterprise in
North Texas. Auguste Savardan was one
of France's best qualified doctors. He was
an early advocate of medical record keep­ing,
and of institutionalized care for the
sick. Malaria was a serious problem at La
Reunion, and Savardan's remedy was "Ie
sulfate de quinine, dissous dans Ie wis­key."
The doctor later returned to France
and published a book, Un Naufrage au
T exas, which is the only detailed record
of life in the settlement. Allyre Bureau, a
musician, became director of the colony
after Cantagrel's resignation in 1856. Bu­reau
had been conductor of a theatre or­chestra
in Paris. He brought with him the
first piano in the Dallas area when he
arrived at La Reunion in 1854. His home,
with its refined atmosphere, became a
social center for the adventurers. Julien
Reverchon came in 1856. After the break­up
of the experiment in 1858, the Rever­chon
family began farming. Julien com­bined
this occupation with a scientific
interest in plant life. He traveled exten­sively
in Texas, amassing a botanical col­lection
of over 20,000 specimens. Today,
that collection is housed in the Missouri
Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Reverchon
became professor of botany at the Baylor
College of Medicine in Dallas. He died in
1905. Collectively, the La Reunion pio­neers
failed in their colonizing effort, but
their individual contributions earned
them respect and appreciation from their
fellow Texans.
XAVIER BLANCHARD
DEB RA Y
1861
In his Civil War service, French-born
Xavier de Bray fulfilled the highest tradi­tion
of the Texas fighting man. This
graduate of the French Military Academy
settled at San Antonio in 1848. He earned
a livelihood as an interpreter and trans­lator,
and as the publisher of a Spanish­language
newspaper, "II Bejareno." In
1855, he moved to Austin to become a
translator in the General Land Office. The
following year, de Bray established an
academy which flourished until 1861,
when he began his military service in the
Confederate army. He served for a time
as aide-de-camp to Governor- Francis R.
Lubbock, then, in September, 1861, was
commissioned a major in the Second Tex­as
Infantry.
Later, he was made colonel of the 26th
Texas Cavalry, which became forever
known as "De Bray's Regiment." In July,
1862, he was placed in command of Tex­as'
Eastern District, with responsibility
for the defense of Galveston. For his part
in the battle of Pleasant Hill, Louisiana,
he was promoted to brigadier general.
When the war was ending, it w'as de Bray
and his men who stopped the looting in
strife-torn Houston. After his discharge
from service in May, 1865, he settled in
the port city and became a naturalized
citizen in 1867. He earned a modest liv­ing
as an accountant, and secretary for
the Produce Exchange. Then, in 1875, he
returned to the General Land Office in
Austin as Spanish translator. He died
there in 1897.
PRINCE DE POLIGNAC
1864
In April, 1864, the Prince de Polignac
was promoted to major general in the
Confederate Army, the only alien to
achieve such high rank in the American
Civil War. His rise was not without its
tribulations. The son of a former French
prime minister, the Prince had fought
with a distinguished record in the Cri-mean
War. He came to America on the
eve of the rebellion, and was soon chief
of staff to Confederate General P. G. T.
Beauregard. He fought valiantly at Cor­inth,
and was made brigadier general in
January, 1863.
That fall, he expected to receive com­mand
of a French Creole outfit, but was
given a brigade of Texans instead. Mak­ing
matters worse, the Texans had just
lost their horses, having been converted
from cavalry to infantry. The hard-bitten
Texans dubbed their new commander
"General Polecat," and some threatened
to desert. However, he quickly won their
respect, admiration, and all-out support
as he led them against Union efforts to
capture Shreveport, which the Yankees
THE PRINCE DE POLIGNAC
Barr, Polignac's Texas Brigade
27
28
wanted to use as an operations base for
an invasion of Texas. Polignac's men
were instrumental in stopping the in­vaders
at the battle of Mansfield.
Later, Polignac was made a division
commander, but in March, 1865, he
crossed Texas and went to France via
Mexico to seek French aid in Louisiana.
His mission failed, and he became a
journalist and civil engineer. In 1866 he
published a book, L'Union Americaine
Apres La Guerre, about his experiences in
the Confederacy. He named his son Victor
Mansfield de Polignac, in commemora­tion
of the victory at Mansfield. The
prince died in France in 1913. Today, his
surviving kinsmen include Prince Rainier
of Monaco, a grandnephew.
ERNEST CARLIN
1876
Ernest Carlin of Paris, France, spent the
years 1876-79 as a West Texas rancher.
Uprooted from his native France as a re­sult
of political turmoil, Carlin had gone
to Australia, where he studied methods of
sheep raising. He decided that Texas
would be an ideal location for such a ven­ture.
He bought 35,000 acres of land in
Menard County, and stocked it with
15,000 head of thoroughbred sheep.
Carlin and his wife, a former Parisian
showgirl, built possibly the finest resi­dence
in West Texas. Their mansion had
16 high-ceilinged rooms, wide hallways,
a covered porch on all sides, and a sweep­ing
view from its hilltop location. It was
filled with imported furniture, including
porcelain bathtubs that aroused wide-
ERNEST CARLIN
Pierce &: Brown, The Free State of Menard
spread comment. Arranged around a
quadrangle with the house were the
kitchen, service quarters, barn, black­smith
shop, buggy shed, smokehouse,
commissary, and .foreman's quarters. The
foreman, George North, took a fancy to
Mrs. Carlin's French maid, and married
her. But the devout and strong-willed
Mrs. Carlin did not recognize the mar­riage
because the ceremony was per­formed
by a justice-of-the-peace. She
locked the maid in her quarters for two
weeks until the wedding could be con­ducted
by a priest.
Within two years, Carlin's debts were
more than $75,000. In 1879, he sold his
property to the Las Moras Ranch Com­pany,
which employed George North as
manager. Back in Paris, Carlin fell in love
with another showgirl, but his wife would
not consent to a divorce, whereupon Car­lin
shot himself and his girlfriend swal­lowed
poison. The widowed Mrs. Carlin
then retired to a convent where she spent
the rest of her life. Today, rock barns of
Las Moras Ranch may be seen about five
miles south of Menard on the old road to
Junction.
THE FRANCO-TEXAN
LAND COMPANY
The Franco-Texan Land Company. estab­lished
in 1876, left an enduring French
influence in many parts of West Texas.
The company was formed by Frenchmen
who had purchased bonds of the Mem­phis,
EI Paso. and Pacific Railroad from
General John Charles Fremont. This rail­road
sold out to the Texas and Pacific, and
the French investors promptly formed a
company to protect their investment by
selling railroad lands which had secured
the bonds. Many of the bondholders
bought the land, moved to West Texas,
and established farms and ranches. It was
not quite the Utopia they had been led to
expect. The dust-laden trees were a far
cry from the verdant forests of their
homeland. They had to adjust to radically
different soil conditions, because most
were simply too poor to return to France.
The Franco-Texan lands were located
in Parker, Palo Pinto, Jones, Shackleford,
Callahan, Stephens, Fisher, Mitchell,
Taylor, and Nolan Counties. The French
laid out the town of Mineral Wells, were
the first settlers at present Baird, intro-
duced the first draft horses into West
Texas through a breed herd at Albany,
and explored the copper deposits near
Seymour. The first bank at Sweetwater
started in a French-owned saloon, where
cattlemen developed a habit of depositing
their money in the office safe. Frenchmen
also operated a plaster and cement plant
near Sweetwater in the 1880's.
Unlike other European investors who
contributed only capital, the Franco-Tex­an
Land Company brought needed man­power.
It is impossible to estimate the
number of immigrants the company spon­sored,
but the 1890 census revealed a
marked gain in the number of French­born
Texans. There were 2,730 of them,
living mostly in urban areas. The Franco­Texan
group undoubtedly brought scores
of these people, who contributed their
skills and hard work to the development
of West Texas.
BISHOP JOHN C. NERAZ
1881
In 1881, John C. Neraz became the second
bishop of the San Antonio diocese. Born
at Anse in the Rhone valley of France, he
had prepared for the ministry at the
Seminary of Lyons. He came to the Unit­ed
States in 1852 at the urging of Bishop
John M. Odin, and was ordained at Gal­veston
the following year. He was then
assigned to the Nacogdoches mission
which embraced all of No}:1:he"stern Tex­as
to the Red River. Ten years later, he
was transferred to Liberty County.' In
1866 he was sent to San Antonio as Fa-
STOCK CERTIFICATE OF THE FRANCO-TEXAN LAND COMPANY University of Texas Archives at Austin
ther Dubuis' assistant, but in 1868, he
was removed to Laredo. There, he com­pleted
construction of the convent and
erected St. Augustine Church. In 1873.
N eraz was designated pastor of the San
Fernando Church in San Antonio. When
the Diocese of San Antonio was created,
he was appointed Vicar-General. He was
made Bishop following the death of the
Rt. Rev. A. D. Pellicer.
In 1883, a deed signed by Bishop N eraz
conveyed the remaining Alamo property,
including the mission-church of San An­tonio
de Valero, to the State of Texas for
a consideration of $20,000. After the
death of the vicar apostolic of Brownsville
in 1884, N eraz added the administration
of that vicarate to his own duties. He car­ried
this responsibility until 1890. Four
years later he died at the age of 66, and
was buried in San Fernando Cemetery.
BISHOP JOHN A. FOREST
1895
John Anthony Forest, Bishop of San .An­tonio
from 1895 to 1911, was the last great
representative of the French-born church­men
who revitalized Catholicism in Tex­as.
He was born on Christmas Day in
1838, the son of a well-to-do farmer near
Lyons. He studied for the priesthood at
the Seminary of Lyons, and in 1862, an­swered
Bishop Dubuis' appeal for mis­sionaries.
On January 3, 1863, Forest and
50 more young clerics sailed for the New
World. After a rough, 60-day voyage, they
arrived at New Orleans about three days
after Union General Ben Butler had cap­tured
the city. Butler refused to admit
29
BISHOP JOHN A. FOREST Parisot. History of the Catholic Church
30
them at first, thinking they might be
French officers coming in disguise to aid
the faltering Confederacy.
Forest completed his studies in New
Orleans and was soon ordained. In May,
1863, he departed for San Antonio, by
way of Matamoros and Brownsville. In
Brownsville he performed his first mass
on Texas soil. He left there with a train
of oxcarts for the three week journey to
San Antonio. The morning after his ar­rival
a body was discovered hanging in
the row of trees bordering the street in
front of the rectory. Forest and a fellow
priest promptly cut down the entire row
to discourage this method of population
control.
The young Frenchman remained in
San Antonio until 1865, when he was
transferred to St. Mary's Church near
Hallettsville. For the next 30 years he
remained at this assignment, building
schools, churches, and rectories. Much of
the manual labor was performed with his
own hands. He was a stranger in a strange
land, but in a short time he had learned
both English and Czech. During the
course of his labors at Hallettsville he
made two trips to his homeland-once in
1872, and again in 1889.
In 1895, at the age of 57, the Reverend
John A. Forest, a parish priest, was chosen
to succeed John C. N eraz as Bishop of San
Antonio. Forest served until his death in
1911, although he had turned over most
of his duties to a chosen successor a year
earlier. His eleven-year reign came dur­ing
an era of almost unprecedented
growth in the San Antonio diocese.
.t
BENJAMIN D. FOULOIS University of Texas History of Aviation Collection
BENJAMIN D. FOULOIS
1910
Benjamin D. Foulois, who was to make
Texas the birthplace of United States mili­tary
aviation, was born of French parent­age
in Connecticut. He was 18 years old
when he joined the United States Army
in 1898. Ten years later he was assigned
to the Army Aero Service, and in 1909,
flew with Orville Wright in the final
cross country test flight before the War
Department decided to develop airpower.
In 1910, Lieutenant Foulois soloed in
the Wright Model B at Fort Sam Houston,
Texas. While there, in 1915, he organized
the First Aero Squadron, which was to
develop into the world's greatest air force.
He was the first American to fly in com­bat.
This happened in 1916, during Gen­eral
John J. Pershing's punitive expedi­tion
against "Pancho" Villa in Mexico.
Foulois was chief of the Army Air Force
from 1931 to 1935. He was retired from
service prior to the outbreak of World
War II. In 1965, he helped dedicate The
University of Texas History of Aviation
Collection at Austin. Foulois died in May,
1967.
CONCLUSION
In their nearly three centuries in Texas,
French influence was never more signifi­cant
than at the time of La Salle's entry
on the Gulf Coast in 1685. This was a
landmark event, not in terms of a power­ful
French presence, but because of the
Spanish reaction which it provoked. It
focused Spain's attention on Texas once
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32
more, and brought about construction of
a chain of missions and forts stretching
from the Rio Grande across Central Texas
to Louisiana.
French migration to Texas has been a
slow, steady trickle of people whose in­fluence
has been out of proportion to their
numbers. At first, they came from Louisi­ana,
slipping past the wary Spanish au­thorities,
to settle principally in the
Nacogdoches district. The Census of 1804
revealed a fairly cosmopolitan population
in this East Texas community. Of 50 for­eign
settlers, there were 13 Americans, 9
Frenchmen, and 7 Irishmen. Two of the
Frenchmen had lived there since 1778.
The majority were farmers and laborers,
but some were traders.
For the most part, Frenchmen contin­ued
making their way to Texas singly and
in small, unorganized groups until the
1840's, when Henri Castro sacrificed his
personal fortune to establish a colony of
Alsatians at Castroville. After an uncer­tain
beginning, the colony became mod­erately
prosperous. The most successful
effort to bring Frenchmen to Texas re­sulted
from the activities of the little­known
Franco-Texan Land Company,
which commenced operations in 1876.
The Texas and Pacific Railroad from Fort
Worth to EI Paso crosses much of the old
Franco-Texan territory. Consulting the
telephone directories of cities along this
route, one still finds many French sur­names:
Beauchamp, Chastain, Fuqua,
Jacques, Lefevre, Pachal, SoRelle, and
many more. Balanced against the suc­cesses
at Castroville, and in West Texas,
are the mildly spectacular failures of
Champ d'Asile, the Icarian colony, and
La Reunion.
Why did French immigration to Texas
occur in relatively small numbers? A re­cent
writer has pointed out: "France was
a Republic, the French loved her soil,
revered her memories, and gloried in her
past and present greatness; in general,
they did not wish to leave their native
country." When the French did migrate,
it was often in response to adversity, such
as World War I, which substantially in­creased
the flow of settlers to America.
Regardless of numbers, the French
made far-reaching cQntributions in their
Texas environment. Their priests revital­ized
the Catholic Church in Texas after
the war for independence from Mexico.
Their religious orders built many church­es,
schools, and eleemosynary institutions
for the care of the sick, the aged, and the
neglected. French settlers made their
mark on Texas' architectural fashions.
One has only to look at the construction
of city homes and apartment dwellings to
see that the mansard style is as popular
as ever. Individuals have contributed not­ably
in a variety of fields: from pirates
and land speculators to explorers, scien­tists,
merchants, doctors, artists, soldiers,
and ranchers. A few of these are now
honored in Texas county names: Castro,
La Salle, and Menard. Fayette County is
named for America's great friend, the
Marquis de Lafayette.
Today, the only concentrated evidence
of French settlement is found among the
Alsatians of Castroville and the Louisiana-born
Cajuns of the Golden Triangle­Beaumont,
Port Arthur, and Orange.
Long established celebrations help bring
the French contribution periodically to
mind. Bastille Day, July 14, is still ob­served
in Houston and Dallas. In late
August, thousands return to Castroville
to honor the patron saint of the century­old
St. Louis Catholic Church. Tons of
Alsatian sausage and Texas barbecue are
served to the hungry multitudes. Port
Arthur's Crawfish Festival in May em­phasizes
a more recent immigration trend
-the arrival of Louisiana Cajuns during
both world wars to work in defense-relat­ed
industries. Cajun cooking and Cajun
humor are only two reminders that not
all French Texans came directly from the
Old Country. Southeast Texas even has
radio broadcasts in the Cajun dialect.
Dallas has long been regarded as one
of the nation's most sophisticated cities.
Perhaps it is significant that many of the
La Reunion settlers later moved across the
Trinity River, settled in the prospering
village, and contributed to its cultural life
for many years. Beau Monde, a popular
fashion magazine with a decided French
orientation, was published in the city of
Neiman-Marcus from 1894 until 1913.
Finally, the language and culture of
France are perpetuated in clubs such as
the Alliance Francaise, found in some col­lege
towns and in the larger cities of Tex­as.
The heritage they seek to preserve is
without doubt colorful, vital, and endur­mg.
l