Established by the Republic of Texas in 1841, Peters Colony was a North Texas land grant made to twenty investors led by William S. Peters. With its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, the investors sought to attract middle class English immigrants by granting 320 acres per person and 640 acres per family. A year later, the investors encountered financial difficulties that compelled them to transfer the colony to Daniel J. Carroll, Sherman Converse, and Charles Fenton Mercer. In 1844, the colony was rearranged as the Texas Emigration and Land Company, though it continued to experience financial troubles. Following the expiration of the colony’s contract in 1848, outside settlers were allowed to obtain land grants for 640 acres, a policy that incited a protest among the original colonists. In 1852, the Texas legislature passed an act that would have granted 1,700 sections of land to the Texas Emigration and Land Company. Over the next twenty years, however, they persisted in their dispute over land titles before reaching a final settlement.
Source:
Wade, Harry E.
Composed of originals and transcripts of correspondence and a legal document, the Peters Colony Papers, 1852-1853, 1925, chronicle the surveying and legal disputes over the land in North Texas. Correspondence concerns land surveys, while a legal document relates to a patent for land.
This collection is open for research use.
Peters Colony Papers, 1852-1853, 1925, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s