Nineteenth Century Spanish and Republic of Texas Land Grants In Somerset Area
Bernard Pyron
The
Image Above Is part of the 1879 Bexar County Land Owners Map. The
double line at the top is the Medina River and the single line below it
is Elm Creek. Note that the Samuel McCulloch Republic of Texas grant
begins just south of Elm Creek. The John Christopher Republic of Texas
grant is not an entire strip running to the Medina from the George Mudd
tract, seen as. the "Geo Mudd" tract on the map. The dotted line at the
bottom left is the border of Bexar and Atascosa counties.
The
image above shows a segment of the 1879 Bexar county Land Owners Map
from Atascosa county north to the Medina and beyond it. The Francisco
Rolen Spanish Land Grant is the largest strip running from the Medina
to just south of the Geo Mudd tract. The next strip of land to the west
shows the John Christopher Republic of Texas grant as the south half
and the Stephen Jett tract the north half. West of the Stephen Jett
tract is the Samuel McCulloch Republic of Texas grant, which runs from
south of Elm Creek to the south bank of the Medina, but this is
northwest of the town of Von Ormy, near Macdona.
Land Grants In the Somerset Area
Bernard Pyron
The history of a town or of a local area can be organized around land
ownership and around the early and most influential families owning that land.
The Bexar county Land Owners Plat maps for the late 19th century are valuable
for their information on land ownership in the South Bexar county area south of the
Medina River.
Here is the Bexar county Landowners Map for 1879:
http://www.loc.gov/item/2012586810
And here is the Bexar county Landowners Maps for
1887 and 1897:
http://www.loc.gov/resource/g4033b.la000899/
The Hispanic Ranchers, some of whom owned vast tracts of land that were strips - including Spanish Land Grants - running south from the Banks of the Medina, and their vaqueros were still an influence in that country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Much of the land that Patrick Kenney owned was out of the Clemente Bustillo tract about two miles west of the Republic of Texas land grant whose south end became the town of Somerset. Part of the Patrick Kenney land became the settlement of Old Bexar, where several families lived who later became important for Somerset.
I found from the Online Bexar County Clerk's land transactions a 1909 deed from to Carl Kurz to the First Townsite Company of the Eugene S. Norris land of about 109 acres - for ten thousand dollars. On 5/1/1909 "We, Carl Kurz, and wife, Auguste Kurz, ten thousand and no/100 (dollars) (paid) to us in hand by the First Town Site Company...real estate...out of Survey 53, patented to Thomas H. Moore, assignee of John Christopher...109 acres except 4 acres out of said tract..." This 109 acres was the southern part of the John Christopher Republic of Texas Land Grant.
The Republic of Texas grant to John Christopher was for his services in the Texas Army. It is Abstract Number 154 in the Texas General Land Office in Austin, and became Survey Number 55, seen on the 1879 Land Owners map above. His grant was the more southern section of a strip of land that originally ran from what became the town of Somerset north, but not all the way to the Medina River. This strip whose southern part was given to John Christopher may have been part of the Spanish Land Grant to Ignacio Perez south of the Medina - before the Texas courts took away his Spanish Land Grants south of the Medina.
http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/index.cfm
Bounty Warrant Certificate From Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas, Number 3035, April 25, 1838 to John Christopher. John Christopher is said to have served in the Texas Army from December 1836 to April 1838.
On the Texas General Land Office site - the link above - not only is the Bounty Warrant Certificate from the Republic of Texas Secretary of War shown, but there are six other pages. One page indicates that the John Christopher 1280 acres was sold to Thomas H. Moore on February 10, 1860. Bexar County Clerk's online land transactions show that the widow of S.R. Jordon sold the Christopher 1280 acres to J.T.Williams in 1878. On July 28, 1881 J.T. Williams sold a tract of land of 80 acres to Eugene S. Norris out of Survey Number 53 granted to Thomas H. Moore assignee of John Christopher. But Carl Kurz sold 109 acres in 1909 to the First Townsite Company out of the John Christopher land. Eugene S. Norris was a settler in the area which became Somerset, since the Norris family is listed by Nellie Mae Kenney in her 1986 history of Old Bexar as being one family among several associated with that community two miles west of what became Somerset.
See: http://www.journalhome.com/remnant/418705/nellie-mae-kenneys-history-of-old-bexar.html
While the online land transaction information from the Bexar County Clerks's Office is valuable, it is sometimes difficult to put together the entire story of a tract of land from the photo copies of these documents. I don't know why Carl Kurz sold 109 acres in 1909 to the First Townsite Company but Eugene S. Norris bought only 80 acres in 1881 from J.T. Williams of the John Christopher grant. Maybe Norris acquired more of the Christopher grant at a later date.
On
http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/mccard9l.htm
.....John Christopher is listed as being in the command of
"McCaskey, R.D. (Lt.)/ Company C
1st Regt. Infantry, Regular Texas Army
(2 Lt. Comm.) Lt. Col. Amasa Turner Command
Time: 2 Yrs. or D.W.
Enlistment from Dec 18, 1835
Oct 31, 1836 - Dec 31, 1836 [A3; T1 p174-176]
Dep: on the Colorado, On Board San Jacinto."
About 60 men are listed as being in Company C, 1st Regiment Infantry, Regular Texas Army. Apparently "on board San Jacinto" means they were at San Jacinto. Company C may have been deployed on the Colorado River at some time after the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.
I would like to find a Land Owners map, earlier than 1879, showing which strips of land running south from the south bank of the Medina that were owned by Ignacio Perez before the Republic of Texas and/or the state of Texas look them away from him because he sided with Santa Anna in the Texas Revolution. He was allowed to keep his Spanish Land Grant north of the Medina, of about four thousand acres, which became the Walsh Ranch.
An interesting piece of local history is the outcome of a state of Texas lawsuit involving Perez, the guy who was left with the huge Spanish Land Grant that became the Walsh Ranch, between Leon Creek and the North Bank of the Medina. "PAUL v. PEREZ. (Ygnacio Perez)
It was admitted, that the defendant, Perez, held possession of the land in controversy, from about the year 1800, until he left it, in December, 1836; lived on the same; had a stone rancho there; cultivated it; and owned a large stock of cattle, horses, sheep, &c, which he pastured there."
PAUL v. PEREZ.
SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
7 Tex. 338; 1851 Tex. LEXIS 148
1851, Decided
Texas was a state in 1851.
Perez claimed a Spanish Land Grant entitled him to a large area of South Bexar county, both north and south of the Medina.
But Perez supported Mexican General Santa Anna in the Texas Revolution and left the Republic of Texas in 1836 for Mexico.
"It has been argued, that, admitting the defendant's title to have been good and perfect, it had been forfeited, by leaving the State, and going west of the Rio Grande, in December, 1836. This forfeiture is supposed to have accrued under the following provision of the Constitution of the Republic, that is to say: "All persons who shall leave the country, for the" purpose of evading a participation in the present struggle" or shall refuse to participate in it, or shall give aid or "assistance to the present enemy, shall forfeit all rights of citizenship", and such lands as they may hold in the Republic." (8 Sec. Gen. Pro. Dig. p. 37.) That, to work the forfeiture denounced by the provision of the Constitution, the purpose or motive of the defendant, in leaving his home, in December, 1836, and going beyond the Rio Grande, is a most material fact, cannot be doubted; and that the record should show that [*345] it had been put in issue, will admit of aslittledoubt........."
Much of the area of South Bexar county Somerset, and north and northwest of the Somerset area, to the Medina, was part of a Spanish Land grant to Ygnacio Perez. The Perez land south of the Medina was taken away from Perez because he supported Santa Anna, and some of the land was given to veterans of the Texas Army, including John Christopher - out of which at the south end was the Eugene Norris land which became Somerset - and bordering it on the west to Samuel McCulloch Jr. Like the John Christopher Republic of Texas Land Grant, the Samuel McCulloch Republic of Texas Land Grant may have been part of the area south of the Medina that had been taken away from Ignacio Perez. Samuel McCulloch was wounded in the early battle of Goliad. The Texas Supreme court allowed Perez to keep his grant north of the Medina of about 4,000 acres. I don't know how many acres he once owned South of the Medina.
Apparently the Perez Spanish grant or grants were west of the Francisco Rolen grant, and may have bordered it.
The Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant was a strip of land about five miles long which ran from the south bank of the Medina River to include what became the eastern part of Somerset, and it went almost down to the border with Atascosa county.
The John Christopher Republic of Texas land grant is a strip just west of the Francisco Rolen land. And the Samuel McCulloch Jr. Republic of Texas grant run just west of the John Christopher land. The Samuel McCulloch land, however, began just south of Elm Creek and ran farther north than did the Rolen and Christopher strips, since the Medina heads northwest of Von Ormy to Macdona.
.On the 1887 Bexar county map of land surveys http://www.loc.gov/resource/g4033b.la000899/
The John Christopher Republic of Texas land grant is shown next to and just west of the larger Fancisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant. The John Christopher grant runs north toward the Medina from its south border with the George W. Mudd tract. The Mudd tract of 320 acres was bought by A.M. Pyron in 1882. But just north of Elm Creek (called Cottonwood Creek on the map) the Christopher tract stops and the Stephen Jett tact continues on north to the Medina close to Von Ormy.
The Samuel McCulloch Jr. Republic of Texas Land Grant can be found at:. http://www.glo.texas.gov/what-we-do/history-and-archives/_publications/lesson_plan_4_mcculloch.pdf
"the relief of sam mcculloch
Section 1:
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the Commissioner of the General Land Office
be, and he is hereby authorized and required, to issue to Samuel McCulloch, a certificate for one league
and one labor of land, which may be located, surveyed and patented upon any vacant and unappropriated
land of this State; and that this act take effect from and after its passage.
Approved, January 21st, 1858"
So, south of the Medina toward Somerset, there were, in the 19th century, three main strips of land, the Rolen strip, a Spanish Land grant, the
John Christopher southern part of the next strip to the west, a Republic of Texas grant, and west of it, but beginning just south of Elm Creek was the Republic of Texas Samuel McCulloch grant as a strip.
On the site http://www.vonormytexas.com/history-of-von-ormy.html it says:
"The land now encompassing the City of Von Ormy ended up being granted to Sam McCulloch," Just as Somerset was once part of the John Christopher Republic of Texas Grant, so the City of Von Ormy, about four miles to the northwest, was once part of the Samuel McCulloch Republic of Texas grant.
https://govapps1.propertyinfo.com/wam3/SearchResults.asp
An online deed, number 92871, filed October 7, 1916, of Bexar county Deed Book 495, page 217, Estate of Samuel McCulloch Jr, Affidavit of Heirship, says that "...W.R. McCulloch, L. C. McCulloch, Mary R. McCulloch and Andrew J. McCulloch were his only heirs."
Then.an online deed of February 7, 1949 , in Bexar county Deed Book 2639, Page 490 says that Everett D. McCulloch, Frank S.G. McCulloch and Robert J. McCulloch are the only surviving children of W.R. McCulloch and wife French Gray, and that W.R. McCulloch died in Bexar county, Texas on April 3, 1927.
Frank S.G. McCulloch was a grandson of Samuel McCulloch Jr.. www.familysearch.org says Frank S.G. McCulloch was born August 4, 1883 and died March 31, 1962. Apparently he was born in South Bexar county, a few miles north of Somerset.
On February 5, 1918 W. R. McCulloch deeded half of his homestead to Frank S.G. McCulloch, 140 acres, shown in Book 528, Page 457
A deed from Everett D. and Frank S.G. McCulloch and others to R.J. McCulloch, February 7, 1949, Book 2639, Page 485 describes 70 acres out of the John Christopher Survey Number 55, Abstract Number 154, in County Block 4030. These online Bexar county land transactions do not always tell the whole story of a family's land ownership. W.R. McCulloch probably inherited land from the Samuel McCulloch tract which is just west of the John Christopher land. I do not know why he made his homestead on the Christopher tract rather than on his father's land.
I do not know if John Christopher left descendants in the area south of the Medina, or if he ever lived on his grant.
On the Bexar County Land Owners Map of 1879 above, the second one down, a Republic of Texas land grant to Stephen Jett is shown above, or noth of the John Christopher grant. The Stephen Jett grant is the north part of the same strip as the John Christopher tract on the south. But the Jett tract goes all the way to the Medina. There is a loop in the Medina, shown on this 1879 map, that is almost a complete circle and the Jett land includes that inner area formed by the loop. The part of the Medina where the Stephen Jett land ends is west of the Somerset Road-Medina Crossing known as Paso de las Garzas , where Blas Herrera and his descendants lived for decades. The F.A. Ruiz, or Francisco Antonio Ruiz, Spanish Land Grant is shown to the left of that loop, or east of it, and the Ruiz land is also east of where the Francisco Rolen strip of land meets the Medina. The Blas Herrera tract is part of the F.A.Ruizgrant. Somerset Road heads northeast from about the southwest corner of the John Christopher tract, shown on the 1879 Land Owners Map and goes northeast to about the western edge of the F.A. Ruiz tract.
The Stephen Jett tract is not as important for the history of Somerset as the John Christopher tract and the Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant, which went south almost to Atascosa county. I went to the web site of the Texas General Land office in Austin to look for the Stephen Jett Republic of Texas Land grant, as i had done before for the John Christopher grant. See: http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/index.cfm
After selecting Bexar county, I typed in Jett, Stephen and found three abstract numbers. The tract below the Medina is Abstract Number 372. Click on the pdf file and copies of several old Republic of Texas documents will come up. One one page there is part of a map showing the north part of the Francisco Rolen grant and next to it, on the west, the Stephen Jett tract which joins the Medina at that loop.
On the first segment shown above of the 1879 Bexar County Land Owners Map the Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant is seen next to the John Christopher tract, and comes down south of the southeast edge of the Geo Mudd land. The John Christopher grant is on the west of the Rolen strip. Without posting a segment of the 1897 Land Owners map, which shows the "C. Kurz" or Carl Kurz tract to be the southwest corner of the Rolen grant, it can be seen that the western edge of the Rolen strip on the 1879 first segment shown above is the road between the Carl Kurz land on the east and the George Mudd land on the west. After 1882 the George Mudd tract of 320 acres belonged to A.M. Pyron. That road between the Carl Kurz land and the A.M. Pyron land, before 1948, is Payne Road which runs into West Dixon Road just north of the second Refinery.. If you were to run Payne Road north to East 6th Street, then the square of Somerset east of thatimaginaryextension of Payne Road north formed by West Dixon Road on the south and South Dixon Road on the East is out of the Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant. When I was in high school there was not much development in that eastern square of Somerset. There were one or two houses on the north side of East 6th, and turning south on what is now called South Dixon was where Galloway Kurz lived until they moved out on Somerset Road on Elm Creek, and then turning west on what is now West Dixon Road there were several houses.
In addition to the John Christopher, Samuel McCulloch Jr and Stephen Jett Republic of Texas land grants near or out of which Somerset was created,
there is also the Guadalupe de los Santos Republic of Texas land grant two or three miles east of Somerset. There might be other Republic of Texas Land Grants as strips running south from the Medina north and northeast of the Guadalupe de los Santos grant.
Here is the information on Guadalupe de los Santos' service in the Texas Army:
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/tejanopatriots.htm
From Rosters and Archival Land Bounty Records "Individuals attached to Capt. Juan Seguin's Companies at one time are indicated in red. The garrison or major battle with which the individual is associated on rosters or land records is also indicated. Al=Alamo; An=Anahuac; Bx=Bexar; Gol=Goliad; SJc= San Jacinto; R=Republic service after Apr 1836." Santos de los, Guadalupe-R Herrera. Blas-Bx, Spy
Guadalupe de los Santos was a Texas Hispanic who served under the command of Juan Seguin, and his service was after the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. I found and listed Blas Herrera who was also under Juan Seguin and served in the Bexar campaigns and was a scout or spy. Blas Herrera is part of local South Bexar county history because of his long association with the Somerset Road-Medina River crossing area, called Paso de las Garzas, where he and his descendants after him lived.
Bernard Pyron
The history of a town or of a local area can be organized around land
ownership and around the early and most influential families owning that land.
The Bexar county Land Owners Plat maps for the late 19th century are valuable
for their information on land ownership in the South Bexar county area south of the
Medina River.
Here is the Bexar county Landowners Map for 1879:
http://www.loc.gov/item/2012586810
And here is the Bexar county Landowners Maps for
1887 and 1897:
http://www.loc.gov/resource/g4033b.la000899/
The Hispanic Ranchers, some of whom owned vast tracts of land that were strips - including Spanish Land Grants - running south from the Banks of the Medina, and their vaqueros were still an influence in that country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Much of the land that Patrick Kenney owned was out of the Clemente Bustillo tract about two miles west of the Republic of Texas land grant whose south end became the town of Somerset. Part of the Patrick Kenney land became the settlement of Old Bexar, where several families lived who later became important for Somerset.
I found from the Online Bexar County Clerk's land transactions a 1909 deed from to Carl Kurz to the First Townsite Company of the Eugene S. Norris land of about 109 acres - for ten thousand dollars. On 5/1/1909 "We, Carl Kurz, and wife, Auguste Kurz, ten thousand and no/100 (dollars) (paid) to us in hand by the First Town Site Company...real estate...out of Survey 53, patented to Thomas H. Moore, assignee of John Christopher...109 acres except 4 acres out of said tract..." This 109 acres was the southern part of the John Christopher Republic of Texas Land Grant.
The Republic of Texas grant to John Christopher was for his services in the Texas Army. It is Abstract Number 154 in the Texas General Land Office in Austin, and became Survey Number 55, seen on the 1879 Land Owners map above. His grant was the more southern section of a strip of land that originally ran from what became the town of Somerset north, but not all the way to the Medina River. This strip whose southern part was given to John Christopher may have been part of the Spanish Land Grant to Ignacio Perez south of the Medina - before the Texas courts took away his Spanish Land Grants south of the Medina.
http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/index.cfm
Bounty Warrant Certificate From Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas, Number 3035, April 25, 1838 to John Christopher. John Christopher is said to have served in the Texas Army from December 1836 to April 1838.
On the Texas General Land Office site - the link above - not only is the Bounty Warrant Certificate from the Republic of Texas Secretary of War shown, but there are six other pages. One page indicates that the John Christopher 1280 acres was sold to Thomas H. Moore on February 10, 1860. Bexar County Clerk's online land transactions show that the widow of S.R. Jordon sold the Christopher 1280 acres to J.T.Williams in 1878. On July 28, 1881 J.T. Williams sold a tract of land of 80 acres to Eugene S. Norris out of Survey Number 53 granted to Thomas H. Moore assignee of John Christopher. But Carl Kurz sold 109 acres in 1909 to the First Townsite Company out of the John Christopher land. Eugene S. Norris was a settler in the area which became Somerset, since the Norris family is listed by Nellie Mae Kenney in her 1986 history of Old Bexar as being one family among several associated with that community two miles west of what became Somerset.
See: http://www.journalhome.com/remnant/418705/nellie-mae-kenneys-history-of-old-bexar.html
While the online land transaction information from the Bexar County Clerks's Office is valuable, it is sometimes difficult to put together the entire story of a tract of land from the photo copies of these documents. I don't know why Carl Kurz sold 109 acres in 1909 to the First Townsite Company but Eugene S. Norris bought only 80 acres in 1881 from J.T. Williams of the John Christopher grant. Maybe Norris acquired more of the Christopher grant at a later date.
On
http://www.tshaonline.org/supsites/military/l/mccard9l.htm
.....John Christopher is listed as being in the command of
"McCaskey, R.D. (Lt.)/ Company C
1st Regt. Infantry, Regular Texas Army
(2 Lt. Comm.) Lt. Col. Amasa Turner Command
Time: 2 Yrs. or D.W.
Enlistment from Dec 18, 1835
Oct 31, 1836 - Dec 31, 1836 [A3; T1 p174-176]
Dep: on the Colorado, On Board San Jacinto."
About 60 men are listed as being in Company C, 1st Regiment Infantry, Regular Texas Army. Apparently "on board San Jacinto" means they were at San Jacinto. Company C may have been deployed on the Colorado River at some time after the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.
I would like to find a Land Owners map, earlier than 1879, showing which strips of land running south from the south bank of the Medina that were owned by Ignacio Perez before the Republic of Texas and/or the state of Texas look them away from him because he sided with Santa Anna in the Texas Revolution. He was allowed to keep his Spanish Land Grant north of the Medina, of about four thousand acres, which became the Walsh Ranch.
An interesting piece of local history is the outcome of a state of Texas lawsuit involving Perez, the guy who was left with the huge Spanish Land Grant that became the Walsh Ranch, between Leon Creek and the North Bank of the Medina. "PAUL v. PEREZ. (Ygnacio Perez)
It was admitted, that the defendant, Perez, held possession of the land in controversy, from about the year 1800, until he left it, in December, 1836; lived on the same; had a stone rancho there; cultivated it; and owned a large stock of cattle, horses, sheep, &c, which he pastured there."
PAUL v. PEREZ.
SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS
7 Tex. 338; 1851 Tex. LEXIS 148
1851, Decided
Texas was a state in 1851.
Perez claimed a Spanish Land Grant entitled him to a large area of South Bexar county, both north and south of the Medina.
But Perez supported Mexican General Santa Anna in the Texas Revolution and left the Republic of Texas in 1836 for Mexico.
"It has been argued, that, admitting the defendant's title to have been good and perfect, it had been forfeited, by leaving the State, and going west of the Rio Grande, in December, 1836. This forfeiture is supposed to have accrued under the following provision of the Constitution of the Republic, that is to say: "All persons who shall leave the country, for the" purpose of evading a participation in the present struggle" or shall refuse to participate in it, or shall give aid or "assistance to the present enemy, shall forfeit all rights of citizenship", and such lands as they may hold in the Republic." (8 Sec. Gen. Pro. Dig. p. 37.) That, to work the forfeiture denounced by the provision of the Constitution, the purpose or motive of the defendant, in leaving his home, in December, 1836, and going beyond the Rio Grande, is a most material fact, cannot be doubted; and that the record should show that [*345] it had been put in issue, will admit of aslittledoubt........."
Much of the area of South Bexar county Somerset, and north and northwest of the Somerset area, to the Medina, was part of a Spanish Land grant to Ygnacio Perez. The Perez land south of the Medina was taken away from Perez because he supported Santa Anna, and some of the land was given to veterans of the Texas Army, including John Christopher - out of which at the south end was the Eugene Norris land which became Somerset - and bordering it on the west to Samuel McCulloch Jr. Like the John Christopher Republic of Texas Land Grant, the Samuel McCulloch Republic of Texas Land Grant may have been part of the area south of the Medina that had been taken away from Ignacio Perez. Samuel McCulloch was wounded in the early battle of Goliad. The Texas Supreme court allowed Perez to keep his grant north of the Medina of about 4,000 acres. I don't know how many acres he once owned South of the Medina.
Apparently the Perez Spanish grant or grants were west of the Francisco Rolen grant, and may have bordered it.
The Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant was a strip of land about five miles long which ran from the south bank of the Medina River to include what became the eastern part of Somerset, and it went almost down to the border with Atascosa county.
The John Christopher Republic of Texas land grant is a strip just west of the Francisco Rolen land. And the Samuel McCulloch Jr. Republic of Texas grant run just west of the John Christopher land. The Samuel McCulloch land, however, began just south of Elm Creek and ran farther north than did the Rolen and Christopher strips, since the Medina heads northwest of Von Ormy to Macdona.
.On the 1887 Bexar county map of land surveys http://www.loc.gov/resource/g4033b.la000899/
The John Christopher Republic of Texas land grant is shown next to and just west of the larger Fancisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant. The John Christopher grant runs north toward the Medina from its south border with the George W. Mudd tract. The Mudd tract of 320 acres was bought by A.M. Pyron in 1882. But just north of Elm Creek (called Cottonwood Creek on the map) the Christopher tract stops and the Stephen Jett tact continues on north to the Medina close to Von Ormy.
The Samuel McCulloch Jr. Republic of Texas Land Grant can be found at:. http://www.glo.texas.gov/what-we-do/history-and-archives/_publications/lesson_plan_4_mcculloch.pdf
"the relief of sam mcculloch
Section 1:
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the Commissioner of the General Land Office
be, and he is hereby authorized and required, to issue to Samuel McCulloch, a certificate for one league
and one labor of land, which may be located, surveyed and patented upon any vacant and unappropriated
land of this State; and that this act take effect from and after its passage.
Approved, January 21st, 1858"
So, south of the Medina toward Somerset, there were, in the 19th century, three main strips of land, the Rolen strip, a Spanish Land grant, the
John Christopher southern part of the next strip to the west, a Republic of Texas grant, and west of it, but beginning just south of Elm Creek was the Republic of Texas Samuel McCulloch grant as a strip.
On the site http://www.vonormytexas.com/history-of-von-ormy.html it says:
"The land now encompassing the City of Von Ormy ended up being granted to Sam McCulloch," Just as Somerset was once part of the John Christopher Republic of Texas Grant, so the City of Von Ormy, about four miles to the northwest, was once part of the Samuel McCulloch Republic of Texas grant.
https://govapps1.propertyinfo.com/wam3/SearchResults.asp
An online deed, number 92871, filed October 7, 1916, of Bexar county Deed Book 495, page 217, Estate of Samuel McCulloch Jr, Affidavit of Heirship, says that "...W.R. McCulloch, L. C. McCulloch, Mary R. McCulloch and Andrew J. McCulloch were his only heirs."
Then.an online deed of February 7, 1949 , in Bexar county Deed Book 2639, Page 490 says that Everett D. McCulloch, Frank S.G. McCulloch and Robert J. McCulloch are the only surviving children of W.R. McCulloch and wife French Gray, and that W.R. McCulloch died in Bexar county, Texas on April 3, 1927.
Frank S.G. McCulloch was a grandson of Samuel McCulloch Jr.. www.familysearch.org says Frank S.G. McCulloch was born August 4, 1883 and died March 31, 1962. Apparently he was born in South Bexar county, a few miles north of Somerset.
On February 5, 1918 W. R. McCulloch deeded half of his homestead to Frank S.G. McCulloch, 140 acres, shown in Book 528, Page 457
A deed from Everett D. and Frank S.G. McCulloch and others to R.J. McCulloch, February 7, 1949, Book 2639, Page 485 describes 70 acres out of the John Christopher Survey Number 55, Abstract Number 154, in County Block 4030. These online Bexar county land transactions do not always tell the whole story of a family's land ownership. W.R. McCulloch probably inherited land from the Samuel McCulloch tract which is just west of the John Christopher land. I do not know why he made his homestead on the Christopher tract rather than on his father's land.
I do not know if John Christopher left descendants in the area south of the Medina, or if he ever lived on his grant.
On the Bexar County Land Owners Map of 1879 above, the second one down, a Republic of Texas land grant to Stephen Jett is shown above, or noth of the John Christopher grant. The Stephen Jett grant is the north part of the same strip as the John Christopher tract on the south. But the Jett tract goes all the way to the Medina. There is a loop in the Medina, shown on this 1879 map, that is almost a complete circle and the Jett land includes that inner area formed by the loop. The part of the Medina where the Stephen Jett land ends is west of the Somerset Road-Medina Crossing known as Paso de las Garzas , where Blas Herrera and his descendants lived for decades. The F.A. Ruiz, or Francisco Antonio Ruiz, Spanish Land Grant is shown to the left of that loop, or east of it, and the Ruiz land is also east of where the Francisco Rolen strip of land meets the Medina. The Blas Herrera tract is part of the F.A.Ruizgrant. Somerset Road heads northeast from about the southwest corner of the John Christopher tract, shown on the 1879 Land Owners Map and goes northeast to about the western edge of the F.A. Ruiz tract.
The Stephen Jett tract is not as important for the history of Somerset as the John Christopher tract and the Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant, which went south almost to Atascosa county. I went to the web site of the Texas General Land office in Austin to look for the Stephen Jett Republic of Texas Land grant, as i had done before for the John Christopher grant. See: http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/index.cfm
After selecting Bexar county, I typed in Jett, Stephen and found three abstract numbers. The tract below the Medina is Abstract Number 372. Click on the pdf file and copies of several old Republic of Texas documents will come up. One one page there is part of a map showing the north part of the Francisco Rolen grant and next to it, on the west, the Stephen Jett tract which joins the Medina at that loop.
On the first segment shown above of the 1879 Bexar County Land Owners Map the Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant is seen next to the John Christopher tract, and comes down south of the southeast edge of the Geo Mudd land. The John Christopher grant is on the west of the Rolen strip. Without posting a segment of the 1897 Land Owners map, which shows the "C. Kurz" or Carl Kurz tract to be the southwest corner of the Rolen grant, it can be seen that the western edge of the Rolen strip on the 1879 first segment shown above is the road between the Carl Kurz land on the east and the George Mudd land on the west. After 1882 the George Mudd tract of 320 acres belonged to A.M. Pyron. That road between the Carl Kurz land and the A.M. Pyron land, before 1948, is Payne Road which runs into West Dixon Road just north of the second Refinery.. If you were to run Payne Road north to East 6th Street, then the square of Somerset east of thatimaginaryextension of Payne Road north formed by West Dixon Road on the south and South Dixon Road on the East is out of the Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant. When I was in high school there was not much development in that eastern square of Somerset. There were one or two houses on the north side of East 6th, and turning south on what is now called South Dixon was where Galloway Kurz lived until they moved out on Somerset Road on Elm Creek, and then turning west on what is now West Dixon Road there were several houses.
In addition to the John Christopher, Samuel McCulloch Jr and Stephen Jett Republic of Texas land grants near or out of which Somerset was created,
there is also the Guadalupe de los Santos Republic of Texas land grant two or three miles east of Somerset. There might be other Republic of Texas Land Grants as strips running south from the Medina north and northeast of the Guadalupe de los Santos grant.
Here is the information on Guadalupe de los Santos' service in the Texas Army:
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/tejanopatriots.htm
From Rosters and Archival Land Bounty Records "Individuals attached to Capt. Juan Seguin's Companies at one time are indicated in red. The garrison or major battle with which the individual is associated on rosters or land records is also indicated. Al=Alamo; An=Anahuac; Bx=Bexar; Gol=Goliad; SJc= San Jacinto; R=Republic service after Apr 1836." Santos de los, Guadalupe-R Herrera. Blas-Bx, Spy
Guadalupe de los Santos was a Texas Hispanic who served under the command of Juan Seguin, and his service was after the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. I found and listed Blas Herrera who was also under Juan Seguin and served in the Bexar campaigns and was a scout or spy. Blas Herrera is part of local South Bexar county history because of his long association with the Somerset Road-Medina River crossing area, called Paso de las Garzas, where he and his descendants after him lived.
Above is the Certificate signed by the Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas for Guadalupe de los Santos.
Notes on Bexar county Survey Number 305 for 320 acres for Guadalupe de los Santos is shown above.
This
is a segment out of Bexar County Survey Number 305 which shows only the
small plat map of the Guadalupe de los Santos Republic of Texas Grant.
Its not easy to read the Survey numbers on this, but from left to
right, for the strips of land running south from the Medina the numbers
are 52, 51, and 50. Then that box-like tract of land below Survey
Number 51 is Survey Number 305, the one for the 320 acres given to
Guadalupe de los Santos whose authority is the 1838 Certificate.
Above
is part of the 1879 Bexar County Land Owners Map showing Surveys 52, 51
and 50 for tracts of land that run all the way north to the Medina,
with the Guadalupe de los Santos tract at the bottom of the F.L.
Paschall tract and Survey Number 51. Not especially the location of the
south end of the larger Francisco Rolen Spanish Land grant to the west
of the Paschall tract which is Survey Number 52. At the south end of
the Francisco Rolen tract note the location of the Geo Mudd tract,
Survey Number 273, which borders the Rolen tract at its southwest
corner. The Carl Kurz tract of something over a hundred acres borders
the Geo Mudd tract. And note also the south end of the John Christopher
tract, Survey Number 55, here. Thats Somerset. I am not sure exactly
how far east the Guadalupe de los Santos tract is from the east edge of
Somerset. But since Carl Kurz deeded part of the Guadalupe delosSantos
grant on September 20, 1917 to his son A.A. Kurz the tract which is the
original Survey Number 305 is likely at the location of the Arthur A.
Kurz place east of Somerset. The 1917 deed from Carl Kurz to A.A. Kurz
mentions that the land was granted to the elder Kurz by John C. Dunlap
(Vol 245, page 39 of Bexar county deed books), and before owned by Geo.
T. Howard. The Arthur A. Kurz place was two to three miles east of
Somerset.
The
segment of the 1897 Bexar County Land Owners Map above shows Surveys
Number 52, 51 and 50, which run all the way north to the Medina owned by
J. T. Quesenberry, G.R. Stumberg, G.W. Slaughter and J. T. Quesenberry -
and the Guadalupe de los Santos Republic of Texas grant is owned by
J.C. Dunlap. The larger Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant has been
divided up into several tracts with various owners by 1897. Lets look
at a larger part of the 1897 map.
At
the very southwest corner of the Francisco Rolen Spanish Land Grant,
Carl Kurz's tract is shown. It says C. Kurz. To the left, or west, of
the C. Kurz tract is what is called the A.M. Payne tract, which is the
A.M. Pyron tract.
And the fifth Republic of Texas
land grant in the general Somerset area is in northern Atascosa county,
on the border with Bexar county. I found this one in looking for land
owned by August F. Ernst.The Atascosa County Landowners Map for 1879 shows the fairly large Lucius W. Gates Republic of Texas Land Grant which is across the border in Atascosa county. The Lucius W,
Gates land is Survey 336 The George W. Mudd tract which borders Somerset is shown on this map and the distance SE to the
Lucius W. Gates Republic of Texas Land Grant is probably three miles or a little more.
On the General Land Office site
http://www.glo.texas.gov/cf/land-grant-search/LandGrantsWorklist.cfm
when survey number 336 for Bexar county is typed in one of the files which comes up says "Bexar Bounty," This
is the Republic of Texas Bounty grant for the services of Lucius W. Gates in the Texas Army, and the abstract
number is 1232. All of this is in Bexar county. But the land given to Gates, actually to his heirs, since he was killed
in the Fannin Massacre at Goliad, is in Atascosa county near the border with Bexar county.
There is in the General Land Office file for survey 336 an affidavit by A.M. Avant and W.M. Wilson, dated
June 2, 1907, and saying they are the only surviving heirs of Lucius W. Gates, "Who was killed at the
Fannin Massacre." Avant and Wilson say "We are now in the peaceful possession of said 1420 acres and make
this affidavit for the purpose of having patent issue to said land." The General Land Office lists "Lucius W. gates
heirs, Patentees.
The Goliad Massacre at Goliad on March 27, 1836, was the execution of Texas soldiers and their commander James Fannin, ordered by Mexican Lt Colonel Jose Nicolas de la Portilla under the authority of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
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