LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 December Signature Texana Auction #661  / 

56017

Leftwich's Grant: Document Signed; 1825

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:3,900.00 USD Estimated At:6,500.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Leftwich's Grant: Document Signed; 1825
<B>Leftwich's Grant: Document Signed</B></I> "<I>Felix Robertson</B></I>" as President and "<I>J.P. Erwin</B></I>" as Secretary, one page, 8vo. Nashville, [Tennessee], October 15, 1825. Partly printed, completed in manuscript. In full, "<I>It is hereby certified that David Campbell is entitled to fraction No. 3 being the One Eighth of Share No. 40 of the Original Stock in the Texas Association. Given at Nashville by order of the Board of Directors.</B></I>" Manuscript Document Signed "<I>David Campbell</B></I>" on verso. In full, "<I>I assign all my right title and interest to the within certificate to James White of Abingdon Virginia for Value received this 4th day of Feby, 1828 witness my hand.</B></I>" In Nashville, Tennessee, on March 2, 1822, 70 individuals calling themselves the Texas Association addressed a petition to the newly independent government of Mexico, asking for permission to settle in Texas.<B> </B></I>Robert Leftwich, their most active member, personally brought the memorial to Mexico City, but it took him three years to get a colonization contract to bring 800 families to Coahuila and Texas. By that date, April 15, 1825, the money advanced to him by the Texas Association had run out, so he got the contract in his own name. Returning to Tennessee, on August 6, 1825, he sold his contract to the Texas Association, on condition that the area covered would thereafter be called "Leftwich's Grant." The contract gave permission to introduce colonists into an area covered by all or part of 17 present-day Texas counties: Bastrop, Bell, Brazos, Burleson, Burnet, Comanche, Coryell, Falls, Hamilton, Lampasas, Lee, Limestone, McLennan, Milam, Mills, Robertson, and Williamson. On October 15, 1827<B>,</B></I> Stephen F. Austin, acting as agent for the Texas Association, reviewed the original 1822 petition and translated it as "the Company from Nashville," so the government granted a confirmation in the name of "The Nashville Company," extending the area into present-day Bosque, Brown, Callahan, Eastland, Erath, Hill, Hood, Jack, Johnson, Palo Pinto, Parker, Somervell, and Stephens counties. In 1831, the area became known as the "Upper Colony" (1831-1834) and then the "Robertson Colony" (1834-1835). All the colonial land offices were closed by the Provisional Government of Texas on November 13, 1835. Following the Texas Revolution, the Robertson Colony was broken up to form the 30 counties mentioned above. Born in 1781, <B>Felix Robertson</B></I> was the first white male child to be born in what is now the city of Nashville. Mayor of Nashville (1818-1819), Robertson, as president of the Texas Association, led a party of 30 men to Texas to explore Leftwich's Grant in 1825. They explored the country along the Brazos, Little, Leon, Lampasas, Salado, and San Gabriel rivers, and on February 1, 1826, began surveying along Cow Bayou and the Brazos River. On his return to Tennessee, he again served as Mayor of Nashville (1826-1828). <B>John P. Erwin</B></I> was also a Mayor of Nashville (1821-1822, 1834-1835). Printed on thin paper, with slightly irregular but generally straight edges. There are folds and show-through from the assignment on verso. In fine condition. <I>From the collection of Darrel Brown. </B></I><BR><BR><B>Reference:</B></I> Streeter 1087<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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