Empresario Sterling C. Robertson Brings Settlers to Texas

Empresario Sterling C. Robertson Brings Settlers to Texas. . To understand the settlement of Salado we begin with the time when empresarios, such as Stephen F. Austin and Sterling C. Robertson, obtained land grants from Mexico to colonize Texas. Empresarios contracted with Mexico to bring settlers to Texas in return for fees from colonists and large tracts of land for themselves. For example, for every 100 families brought in, an empresario received seven leagues (23,023 acres) of land. Many times, S.C. Robertson traveled to Mexico to establish his land grant. And, many times Mexico changed its laws governing land settlement. However, the value of these large tracts of land made working with a difficult government worth it, for they could make an empresario wealthy., Empresario Sterling C. Robertson was from Nashville, Tennessee. As a young man, he was handsome, being well dressed, always riding a good horse, and wearing a percussion-lock pistol on each hip. He, along with other men from Nashville, received an empresario contract in 1825 from Mexico to settle colonists in Texas. Sterling was 44 years old in 1830 when he assembled, financed and led families on the long trek to Texas. He eventually was credited with bringing 270 families to settle in the Brazos River Valley, which was north of Austin's colony, between 1827 and 1836. The grant he settled was 100 miles wide and 200 miles long and known as the Leftwich or the Nashville or Robertson Colony. Eventually, this land included part or all of 30 counties, including Bell County. He brought his twelve-year-old son Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson to Texas in 1833., Empresario Robertson favored Texas independence from Mexico and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836 (written by his nephew). After the fall of the Alamo, he joined the Texas Army with Sam Houston and was at Harrisburg during the battle of San Jacinto. He was served as a senator in the new Republic of Texas. In 1838, he retired near Nashville on the Brazos. He spent his time raising thoroughbred and Arabian horses. Being an ardent Scot, he named his horses after characters in Sir Walter Scott's novels. He died in 1842 at age fifty-seven., Captions , Lower Left: Robertson Colony Map