San Patricio

San Patricio was founded in 1829 by the empresarios James McGloin and John McMullen qv after they received permission from the Mexican government on August 16, 1828, to settle 200 Irish Catholic families in Texas. After recruiting settlers in New York, the empresarios hired the New Packet and Albion to transport the colonists to their new home. The first settlers arrived at El C?pano and Mesquite Landing in late October 1829 and made their way to the old mission at Refugio, where they remained for some time. They eventually chose a townsite where the Camino Real from Goliad to Laredo and the Atascosito Road from Louisiana crossed the Nueces River. It is not known just exactly when the settlers moved from Refugio to the Nueces River site; however, by November 18, 1830, the move was completed. The ancient fort of Lipantitl?n was across the river less than two miles distant. The colonists put up temporary shelters of poles chinked with mud and grass. Since there was very little timber for log cabins, they built picket houses by digging trenches and standing small tree trunks upright in them. Roofs were made of thatch, and mud filled the cracks in the walls. Land commissioner Jos? Antonio Saucedo arrived in October 1831 to issue land grants to eight settlers. A townsite four leagues square, called Villa de San Patricio de Hibernia in honor of Ireland's patron saint, had been laid out by surveyor William O'Docharty. In 1834 Jos? Mar?a Balmaceda, the new land commissioner, returned to issue another seventy-six land grants. Local autonomy under Mexican rule was increased in 1834 when the municipality of San Patricio was established. William O'Docharty was named alcalde, and Thomas Adams, Francisco De Le?n, Francisco Leal, and Patrick O'Boyle were elected aldermen. It appears that the residents of San Patricio were not caught up immediately in the revolutionary spirit that prevailed over most of Mexican Texas in 1835; however, representatives from San Patricio participated in all conventions except the first ( see ??TEXAS REVOLUTION