Texas Land Grants

Texas Land Grants

Genealogists new to Texas research are often surprised to find that the U.S. federal governemt has never held any public lands whatever in the state. Texas was a sovereign and independent nation for a decade following independence from Mexico and one of the articles in the Annexation Treaty in 1845 provided that Texas would retain control of its own public lands.

The first Congress of the Republic defined the boundaries of Texas and claimed 216,000,000 acres (about 350,000 square miles) of unappropriated land — much of it actually still under Mexican control. The Texas General Land Office was established in December 1836.

Both Spain and Mexico had granted land to settlers and the Republic of Texas continued the practice, issuing many thousands of "headright" grants. The following outlines the types of grants, their requirements, and the amount of the grant. 1st Class grants were authorized in the Constitution of the Republic. Later grants were phased in through legislation.

Under the headright system, the Republic granted a total of 36,876,492 acres.

In order to attract settlers, the Republic in 1841 began to sign colonization contracts with various individuals to establish colonies in Texas and receive payment in land. The empresarios (contractors) received large personal grants for their efforts, being granted 10 sections of land per 100 families settled and being allowed to retain up to half that as payment for surveying the land and handling the title-application process. Settlers in their colonies (all of whom were required to have immigrated from outside the Republic) received 640 acres as heads of families or 320 acres as single men. Through colonization contracts (the details of which varied), the Republic granted another 4,494,806 acres before the program was discontinued in January 1844.

As a further inducement to settlement, the Congress of the Republic in 1845 passed the first Pre-Emption Act, by which persons who previously had settled upon and improved vacant public lands (i.e., homesteaders), or who might thereafter settle upon and improve vacant lands, had the right to "pre-emptively" purchase up to 320 acres of that land. Pre-emptors were required to obtain valid certificates of their land within three years. When Texas became a state, the pre-emption period was extended to 1 January 1854. A total of 4,800,000 acres was granted by pre-emption.

During its ten years as a republic, Texas distributed 41,570,733 acres of land. By contrast, Spain and Mexico together had issued land titles to about 26,280,000 acres.

As both a republic and a state, Texas also granted public lands for military service in the form of bounty grants (promised for future service, as an aid in recruitment) and donation grants (a reward for past service).

• Act of December 1835 - A bounty of 800 acres was promised to all those who served in the Texas Regular Army for two years, or until the end of the war. Members of the Volunteer Corps were promised 320 acres for three months' service, or 640 acres for service to the end of the war. For those who died in service, their heirs would receive their bounty grant - plus an additional 640 acres.
• Act of 21 December 1837 - Bounty grants were promised at the rate of 320 acres for each three months of service, up to one years or 1,280 acres per man.
• Act of 21 December 1837 - Donation certificates for 640 acres were granted to all men engaged in the Battle of San Jacinto, and to all those wounded the previous day, and to all those detailed to guard the baggage train in Harrisburg. Donation certificates for 640 acres were granted to all participants in the siege of Bexar, the Goliad campaign, and the defense of the Alamo, or their surviving heirs.(Grantees originally were prohibited from selling this land, but this provision was later repealed.)
• Act of May 1838 - A special headright of one league was issued to the heirs of men who had fallen with Fannin, Travis, Grant, or Johnson in 1836, and to veterans who had been permanently disabled in service.
• Act of 1840 for frontier defense - Men who served in frontier regiments were granted 160 acres, to be located near frontier military posts. However, the supply of usable land near posts proved inadequate and the Act was amended to grant 240 acres anywhere in the Republic.
• Act of 1879 - Certificates for an additional 640 acres were granted to indigent veterans (only) of the Texas Revolution, after stringent examination.

Large amounts of land were later distributed in developing the state's infrastructure, railroads, public schools, and higher educational system. By 1898, when the Texas Supreme Court ruled that there was no more unappropriated land in the state, a total of 216,314,560 acres had been disposed of.

Texas land grants may be searched online at the General Land Office's Land Grant Database. Details of the often complex land grant certification process after independence may be found here.