Kerr's Settlement - Gonzales, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 29° 30.482 W 097° 25.865
14R E 652068 N 3265298
Metal sign on a wood post in front of a pavilion with a pink granite marker at its center that give information of the Birth of the DeWitt Colony.
Waymark Code: WMWCWE
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 08/15/2017
Views: 1
In April 1825, Green DeWitt acquired a land grand from the Republic of Mexico to settle 400 families in and around the present location of Gonzales. He recruited ex-Missouri state senator James Kerr as his surveyor general to establish a capital for this colony. Kerr laid out four leagues allocated to the capital township and named it Gonzales in honor of Don Rafael Gonzales, the provisional governor of the state of Coahuila y Texas. Kerr and a few other men built their cabins in this area along what is now called Kerr's Creek. Indians were a constant threat, and after a destructive raid in July 1826, the settlers, few in number and unable to defend the settlement, abandoned this site for a temporary settlement called Old Station, six miles from the coast on the Lavaca River.
Late in 1827, after their crops had been harvested and a fort had been completed at Gonzales, 40 of the DeWitt colonists at Old Station relocated to Gonzales. The official census of the DeWitt Colony of 1828 listed a total population of 75 comprised of 9 families and 25 single men. The relocation of the 40 residents from Old Station was a new start for the DeWitt Colony, and with the promise of land titles and opportunities for a new life, more settlers come to the Gonzales area.
Pavilion erected by the Spade and Trowel Garden Club, 2010 - 2011
Group that erected the marker: Daughters of the the Republic of Texas
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
2088 St. Louis St.
Gonzales, TX USA
78629
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