Peters ColonyHarry E. Wade, "PETERS COLONY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/uep02), accessed May 15, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. (Peters' Colony) is a name applied to four empresario land grant contracts first by the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Me ...

and then the

State of Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by b ...

for settlement in

North Texas North Texas (also commonly called North Central Texas) is a term used primarily by residents of Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas to describe much of the north central portion of the U.S. state of Texas. Residents of the Dallas–Fort Wo ...

. The contracts were signed by groups of American and English investors originally headed by William Smalling Peters. Samuel Browning, Peters' son-in-law signed the first contract with the Republic of Texas in Austin on August 30, 1841. Ownership of the empresario company changed many times during the life of the contracts. The original boundary of Peters Colony started on the Red River at the mouth of Big Mineral Creek, currently in western Grayson County, running south 60 miles, then west 22 miles, then back north to the Red River, and then east along the Red River to the point of origin at Big Mineral Creek. According to the contract, the empresarios were required to recruit 200 families from outside the Republic in three years. Each single man could be granted 320 acres or each family 640 acres. The empresarios were allowed to keep up to half of the settler's grants for services rendered. These services included surveying, title documents, shot, powder, seed, and in some cases a log cabin. The terms of the contract involving titles and the retention of property by the company led to problems between settlers and the company for many years. The Hedgcoxe War was an armed rebellion against the land company's agent Henry Oliver Hedgcoxe on July 16, 1852, in which company records were seized and taken to the Dallas County Courthouse. These problems required additional legislation by the Congress of the Republic of Texas and the Texas Legislature. Unappropriated land within the original boundary was insufficient; settlers and trading posts were already in the area. A second contract was requested that extended the boundary 40 miles south. It was signed on November 9, 1841. Peters' company had trouble meeting the deadlines, and requested a third contract. It was signed by

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

on July 26, 1842. It extended the boundary to include a 12-mile-wide strip on the east and a 10-mile-wide strip on the west. The fourth contract was signed on January 20, 1843. It extended that deadline to July 1, 1848, and expanded the boundary to include 10 million acres to the west. The extensive area of Peters Colony included all or portions of Denton, Collin, Cooke, Grayson,

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

, Tarrant, Wise, Palo Pinto,

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, Montague, Parker,

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, Jack, Erath, Wichita,

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, Young, Stephens, Eastland, Wilbarger, Baylor, Throckmorton, Shackelford, and Callahan Counties.Seymour V. Connor, The Peters Colony of Texas: A History and Biographical Sketches of the Early Settlers (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1959) That is parts of 26 counties total. Typical Texas counties have an area of 900 sq mi (2331 sq km).

References

{{Reflist History of Texas Geography of Texas 1840s in Texas