Empresarios

After Mexico won its independence, a man named Augustin de Iturbide took total control and ran the country as a dictator.

In 1824, the people of Mexico finally got rid of him and made a new constitution giving the people more power.

Stephen F. Austin was the first American empresario to bring families to settle in Texas. His father, Moses, had the first land grant, but he got sick and died. Stephen took over for his father and settled the families himself.

He brought 300 families to Texas. These families were given the nickname "The Old 300." Austin was known as "The Father of Texas" for bring ing the first families.

Erasmo Seguin was a Tejano empresario. Seguin represented Texas at the Mexican Constitutional Convention in 1824.

When Mexico decided to invite immigrants to Texas, Seguin helped locate the land that Stephen F. Austin and his families would settle.

Seguin himself settled in Bexar, near present-day San Antonio.

Green DeWitt was an Anglo American empresario who received a grant to settle 400 families in Texas.

He settled 166 families near present-day Gonzales Texas. Despite this accomplishment, he failed to settle the 400 promised families and his land grant was later not renewed.  

Martín de León was a wealthy Mexican citizen who had served in the military. He moved to Tejas in 1801, and when Mexico offered land grants he saw an opportunity to ensure his children and descendants would have land in Texas.

De León settled 200 families in the town his wife founded. This town was called Victoria, Texas.