| After their explorations in the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish established their presence in Texas. Throughout the Spanish colonial era, the Winedale area continued as a major crossroads of exploration, travel, and trade. Spanish explorers, soldiers, missionaries, and cattle herds traversed the region from San Antonio and La Bahía to Nacogdoches and into Louisiana. Except for the dwindling Tonkawa population, the area remained sparsely settled until Mexican independence from Spain and the beginnings of Anglo colonization in the 1820s. | ||||
| Register
of private brands and earmarks in the San Antonio area,
1762. Bexar Archives  |
 Juez de campo
(field judge), drawing by José Cisneros, in his Riders
Across the Centuries: Horsemen of the Spanish Borderlands
(1984). |
 Stephen
F. Austin, Map of Texas
(1835).J. P. Bryan Map Collection This adapted 1835 map of Texas is based on the surveys of empresario Stephen F. Austin and Mexican General Mier y Terán. It depicts the strategic location of the Winedale area near the major road connecting the presidio, missions, and cattle ranches of La Bahía (now Goliad) with Nacogdoches in east Texas. In the 1820s, the area lay in the northern part of Austin’s original colony. La Bahía Road, which developed from an old Indian trail and was traveled as early as 1690 by the Alonso de León expedition, crossed the Colorado River near present-day La Grange, then curved to the northeast before joining the Camino Real from San Antonio. It has left its name in Fayette County in the form of La Bahía Prairie. |
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| The large Spanish cattle industry in south Texas exported horses and cattle up the Caminos Reales (“Royal Roads”) from San Antonio and La Bahía for sale in Louisiana. The practice of branding livestock was one of many cattle-raising traditions that the Spanish brought to the New World. Those traditions also included a comprehensive legal structure regulating cattle taxes, roundups, slaughter, and export and sale. | ||||
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With independence from Spain in 1821, the
new Mexican Republic was eager to settle its sparsely
populated northern frontier with stable and prosperous
farmers and planters. American Stephen F. Austin promised
to fill that need with his first colony in 1822. Austin
worked hard to promote peace and stability between the
settlers and the Mexican authorities. The Austin Colony
was a generous grant, extending far inland from the coast
to embrace the area of present-day Winedale (see map
above). The original Austin colonists, known as the
“Old Three Hundred,” included the first Anglo
settlers in what is now northern Fayette County. Portrait of Stephen F. Austin, by
William Howard, 1833. |
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| Stephen F. Austin kept a homespun-bound ledger of land titles issued to the settlers in his colony. Among the original “Old Three Hundred” settlers was William Rabb, who received three titles north of the Colorado River in the summer of 1824. Rabb was vital to the success of Austin’s colony because he agreed to establish a mill. Rabb’s Prairie in northern Fayette County recalls his role in the history of the region. | ||||
|
Homespun
cover for, & William Rabb title entries in, Stephen
F. Austin, A List of Titles,
1824. J. P. Bryan Papers |
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| Reconstructed log cabins at
Winedale, Photographs by Drew Patterson. Winedale Photograph Collection |
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| John and Mary Rabb, William Rabb’s son and daughter-in-law, also settled in the area in the 1830s. Pioneer life in the Austin Colony demanded unceasing toil and privation to wrest a livelihood from the wilderness. Mary Rabb left a written reminiscence of those early days: | ||
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| Mary
Rabb reminiscence, 1875. Rabb Family Papers |
Portrait of John and Mary Rabb. Prints and Photographs Collection | |
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