The following article is by my friend Bill Dollarhide, taken from his book Texas Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1716-2012.
Prologue: When the Spanish/Mexican colonists first moved into the region of present Texas, they were invading the long-held territory of the Comanche Indians, one of the fiercest warrior tribes in North America. The Comanche successfully defended their territory for decades, destroying whole settlements of whites at will. But the onslaught of Americans into the Texas region eventually overpowered the Comanche dominion. The events of the Spanish, Mexican, and American invaders of Texas and the jurisdictions they created are shown below as a timeline. At the end of each Texas era (Spanish, Mexican, Republic, and State) a review of censuses available for that period are also shown.
TEXAS: The Spanish Era, 1691-1820.
– Texas was closely linked with Coahuila Province during all of the years of the Spanish era of Mexico, 1691-1820. The earliest populations in the region began when troops from Coahuila established Nacogdoches in 1716, San Antonio de Bexar in 1718, and La Bahia del Espiritu Santo in 1722, the last mentioned post being moved in 1749 to what is now Goliad. The Medina River just west of San Antonio became the western boundary of the “Texas” command, while the lower Nueces River marked the boundary with New Santander province.
– Texas became a separate province about 1726, with San Antonio as its capital from 1773. The Spanish government in Madrid in 1805 formally defined the west boundary (a northwestern trace from the Medina River to the southeastern corner of present-day New Mexico, and from that point to the Red River, at the southwestern corner of present-day Oklahoma). West of that line was the colonial Spanish province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. (The map of the Republic of Texas below shows the original 1805 western Texas boundary.
– The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 by the United States forced a formal clarification of the eastern boundary of Texas. Spain claimed east to the Red River; the U.S., west to the Sabine. They compromised with an agreement in 1806 which created the so-called Neutral Ground, a buffer zone where neither would exercise jurisdiction in what was to be a no-man’s land. But actually, it became a haven for pirates, outlaws, fugitives, and others enjoying freedom from government. The Neutral Ground was bounded west by the Sabine and east by present Louisiana’s Calcasieu River and Bayou Pierre.
– Finally, the Spanish-American treaty of 1819 (ratified by the parties in 1821) set the east Texas border to run up the Sabine to the 32nd parallel and then due north to the Red River. This is the modern Texas line with Louisiana and Arkansas, but it took nearly two decades to clarify just where that due-north line met the Red River. This uncertainty made it possible for Arkansas Territory in April 1820 to create Miller County partly in what is now northeast Texas. NOTE: Refer to the the Arkansas Historical Timeline article for more details on old Miller County, 1820-1836.
– At the end of the Spanish era in 1820, Texas was a moribund province, its few thousand Hispanics living mainly in San Antonio, LaBahia (Goliad), and Nacogdoches. The ruins of destroyed and abandoned settlements and missions dotted this Indian besieged province barely maintaining its population in the years 1790-1820. To the east, American frontier families were beginning to cross the Sabine, while in the extreme northeast the Americans along the Red River were a de facto part of Miller County, Arkansas Territory. To the west in 1820, the Rio Grande valley contained a few towns such as Laredo, Presidio del Rio Grande and Paso del Norte, but the valley was not part of Spanish Texas.
Censuses from the Spanish Era, 1716-1821: The elaborate Spanish bureaucracy required detailed reports from its frontier posts. This included population data, especially after a royal order of 1776 from Madrid commanded periodic censuses from its American colonies. A good many Texas censuses survive for towns, missions, and their environs, and some have been published, such as for Nacogdoches 1792 and Salcedo 1805. Others can be found in the microfilmed archives for San Antonio de Bexar, Nacogdoches, and Laredo, now located at the State Archives in Austin.
TEXAS: The Mexican Era, 1821-1836
– Mexico became independent in 1821. It renamed New Santander province as the State of Tamaulipas and in 1824 joined Texas to Coahuila as the State of Coahuila y Texas.
– Mexico in the 1820s tried to build a barrier against on-coming Americans by encouraging “fit” Anglo settlers to take up land. This began in earnest with an 1823 contract with Stephen Austin to bring in 300 families, giving Austin authority to grant these families land. In 1824 a similar contract was made with Green DeWitt for 400 families. Further such empresario grants were made until by 1830 most of present-day Texas was covered by such grants, although the grants along the Red River and in the Texas panhandle never functioned.
– Politically, Texas in 1830 was the department of Bexar within the state of Coahuila y Texas. The western boundary remained unchanged from 1805, though common usage and contemporary maps increasingly marked the whole Nueces River as the boundary. Within the department of Bexar were four jurisdictions called municipalities. These were headquartered at San Antonio, LaBahia (Goliad), San Felipe de Austin (Austin’s colony), and Nacogdoches.
– As American population rapidly increased in east Texas and in the empresario colonies south and southeast of San Antonio, more municipalities were created and some of these were subdivided into districts. By 1828, Austin’s colony had seven such districts.
– The Mexican congress by act of 6 April 1830 barred further American immigration into Texas. Mexican troops were stationed around east Texas to enforce the ban, though Austin and DeWitt were allowed to bring in a few families in fulfillment of their contracts. Significant legal immigration from the U.S. resumed only in 1834. The last two years of Mexican government in Texas saw a typical American scramble for land.
– By 1834, new departments of Brazos and Nacogdoches were carved from Bexar and four new municipalities were created: Bastrop, Matagorda, San Augustine, and San Patricio. By the end of the Mexican era in 1835, the entity called Texas was composed of three departments, each with representation in the state legislature of Coahuila y Texas. These departments were subdivided into municipalities and some further into districts. Add the empresario grants, new towns, and clusters of farms informally called “settlements” and Texas was a mosaic of jurisdictions, with a population of about 24,000 Americans and 6,000 Hispanics. Maps in William Pool’s Historical Atlas of Texas (Encino Press, Austin, TX, 1975) may be the best source for locating places in Texas at the time of independence.
Censuses from the Mexican Era, 1821-1836: There are lists of American settlers, such as the Austin and DeWitt colony lists of 1826-1828 and the published lists for what seems to be the department of Nacogdoches. An inventory of extant Spanish and Mexican censuses for Texas does not at present exist . NOTE: The bibliography in the book, Texas Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1716-2012 (identifies the name lists of the Mexican Era that are known and have been published..
TEXAS: The Republic of Texas Era, 1836-1845
– The Texas war for independence began in October 1835 at Gonzales and climaxed on 21 April 1836 with the battle of San Jacinto, where the Mexican president-dictator Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana was captured. He agreed (at least while a prisoner) to Texas independence and to the withdrawal of Mexican forces across the Rio Grande.
– The Texas provisional government in December 1835 proceeded to claim the Rio Grande for a western boundary, even up in New Mexico, but the Republic of Texas could never assert its authority west of the Nueces River, the original 1805 Spanish boundary of Texas. The Mexican congress refused to confirm the Santa Ana agreement, never recognized the Texas republic, and treated it as a province in rebellion. Mexican forces in 1841 crossed the Nueces and briefly occupied San Antonio, thereby pushing Texas another step toward eventual annexation by the United States in 1845.
Censuses Substitutes from the Republic of Texas, 1836-1845: The Republic took no known national census. Publications purporting to be such “censuses” are usually the tax lists required yearly from Jan 1837 as compiled by the county assessors. Such ad valorem tax lists (containing real, personal, and poll/head tax information) were made in two copies, one sent to the Texas capital. County tax lists during this period are available on microfilm, or as part of major online databases at FamilySeach.org and Ancestsry.com.
TEXAS: The State of Texas Era, 1845-Present
– With the U.S. annexation of Texas in 1845 came the Texas claim to the Rio Grande. In 1846 U.S. troops crossed the Nueces, bringing war with Mexico and the American capture of the Rio Grande Valley in 1847-1848.
– Having given credence to the Texas claim, the U.S. now bought out that claim to New Mexico, paying ten million dollars to Texas by act of 9 September 1850, ratified by Texas 25 November 1850. This act established the present Texas boundaries.
– A later claim by Texas in 1860 for the northern branch of the Red River as its boundary, allowed Greer County to be created and settled by Texans – but the U.S. government forced Texas to transfer old Greer County to Oklahoma Territory in 1896.
Texas State Censuses & Substitutes: Texas was annexed to the U.S. as the 26th state in the Union in 1845. References were found to possible state censuses in 1847-1848, 1851, 1858, and 1887. It seems likely the county assessors doing the enumeration were required only to tally the population by several age/sex/race categories and send the counts to Austin. The state and university libraries and archives in Austin could produce no actual name lists for any of the state censuses, except one county list for 1858 Austin County. The state’s thousands of tax lists have been microfilmed, those from 1837 through the late 1970s. The microfilm was digitized, indexed, and made available online at the FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com website.
Texas Federal Censuses. The first U.S. federal census in Texas were those for Miller County, Arkansas Territory. The 1820 Miller census (lost) included the parts of present-day Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas where those states now corner. In 1828, the Indian boundary was established at the present Oklahoma-Arkansas line and Arkansas Territory adjusted its counties so that the Miller 1830 census (extant) was totally south of the Red River in what is now Texas. The U.S. federal censuses, 1850-1940 are complete for all Texas counties, except for the 1890, lost for all states. The orderly way large areas of north and northwest Texas were sectioned into counties with little or no population does mean that the 1860 and 1870 censuses had many unorganized counties without population.
Further Reading:
Texas Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1716-2012 (Printed Book), Softbound, 85 pages, Item FR0295.
Texas Censuses & Substitute Name Lists, 1716-2012 (PDF eBook), 85 pages, Item FR0296.
Online Texas Censuses & Substitutes: A Genealogists’ Insta-Guide TM (Laminated), 4 pages, 3-hole punched, FR0365.
Online Texas Censuses & Substitutes: A Genealogists’ Insta-Guide TM (PDF eBook), 4 pages, FR0366.