Nita Thurman

When Texas won independence from Mex­ico, the new Republic had to take over assorted land grants that had been made through the years by Mexican and Spanish officials.

Like Mexico before it, the Republic immediately began to try to attract new settlers — adding more varieties of land grants to complicate the issue even further. When Texas was annexed by the United States 10 years later, still more kinds of grants were added.

In all, the numbers of grants made by the Republic and then the state of Texas totaled more than 81 million acres.

For the cash-strapped Republic and then state, land certificates became a medium of exchange. Grantees received a certificate promising a certain amount of acreage; then they had to actually locate the acreage somewhere in the public domain — which was all of Texas — and claim it. Often, grantees hired attorneys or agents to complete the process. About as often, grantees sold their certificates to one or even a succession of new owners.

Denton County, created in 1856, would include samples of most of the different types of land grants authorized through the early years. The first offices in the early county seat of Alton were a land office and a law office.

Land grants were for varied amounts of land.

Early Mexican laws enacted in 1823 granted heads of families a “league and labor” of land — terms that you will see repeatedly in Texas land history. A league was 4428.4 acres for grazing land. A labor was 177.1 acres of cropland.

Most of the Mexican grants were made through empresarios, or immigration agents — such as Moses Austin and his son Stephen Austin — who oversaw all the particulars of a new colony. The empresarios were paid in additional land, the amount based on the number of colonists brought in.

Between 1821 and 1835, 41 empresario grants were made, the majority going to emigrants from the United States, according to the Handbook of Texas section of land grants.

Independent Texas recognized the earlier Mexican and Spanish land grants as valid, but established its own set of grants. All heads of families who lived in Texas in March 1836 — except Africans and Indians — were granted first-class headrights of a league and labor of land and single men 17 years old or more were granted one-third of a league — 1,479 acres.

Later laws established second-class headrights of 1,280 acres to heads of families and 640 acres to single men and third-class headrights of 640 acres for heads of families and 430 acres for single men. A fourth-class headright — for the same amount of acreage as third-class grants — was added later. All were based on the dates of immigration. Under these land grants, the Republic actually gave away about 37 million acres in headright certificates.

The Republic also established “pre-emption grants” which allowed homesteaders who had already settled on vacant public lands to purchase 349 acres. The subsequent Homestead Act of 1854 reduced homestead acreage to 160 acres and required three years of residency.

The Republic also continued the empresario grant system, which included the Texas Land and Immigration Company, more commonly known as the Peters Colony, which covered Denton and all of the other counties in Northeast Texas. The colony granted heads of families up to 640 acres and single men 320 acres. Pre-emption and homestead grants totaled about 4.8 million acres, according to the Handbook of Texas.

Other set of grants, called donation and bounty grants, went to veterans of military service. Donation certificates for 640 acres each were granted to all veterans of the battle of San Jacinto, soldiers who “were wounded the day before, and to all who were detailed to guard the baggage at Harrisburg.” Harrisburg was a strategic crossing as the Mexican and Texan armies approached San Jacinto. Bounty warrants, also for 640 acres, went to veterans of the siege of Bexar, the Goliad campaigns, and the battle of the Alamo and their survivors. Years later, in 1879, indigent veterans of the Texas Revolution could claim 640 acres. Also, bounty and donation grants for military service were given to disabled Confederate veterans.

The state of Texas also granted another 32 million-plus acres to the railroads and more for other internal improvements to public land.

NITA THURMAN can be reached at nitathur@aol.com .