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 An empresario () was a person who had been granted the right to settle on land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for settling the eastern areas of Coahuila y Tejas in the early nineteenth century. Since ''empresarios'' attract ...

land grant contracts first by the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

and then the

State of Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

for settlement in

North Texas North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...

. 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 a prominent 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 indi ...

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 Cooke is a surname of English and Irish origin derived from the occupation of cook and anglicisation of various Gaelic names. Variants include Cook and McCook. Irish surname origin Cooke (rather than Cook) is the usual spelling of the surnam ...

, Grayson,

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Tarrant, Wise, Palo Pinto,

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, Montague,

Parker Parker may refer to: People * Parker (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Parker (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Arts and entertainment * ''Parke ...

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Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

, Erath, Wichita,

Archer Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In modern ...

Young Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one's age is low, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an America ...

Stephens Stephens is a surname. It is a patronymic and is recorded in England from 1086. Notable people with the surname include: *Alexander H. Stephens (1812–1883), Vice President of the Confederate States *Alison Stephens (1970–2010), British mandoli ...

Eastland SS ''Eastland'' was a passenger ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On 24 July 1915, the ship capsized while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. In total, 844 passengers and crew were killed in what was the largest loss of life from a s ...

, 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