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| Replica
of the 1872 San Patricio County Courthouse in San Patricio, TX. The original courthouse
burned in 1889. This replica was constructed in 1985 by the San Patricio Restoration
Society. See San
Patricio County Courthouses. Photo and research by Terry
Jeanson, December 2006 |
History in a Pecan
Shell
San Patricio was an Irish settlement founded by empresarios
James McGloin and John McMullen in 1829. They had been granted permission to settle
200 Catholic families which were mainly recruited from New York. First residents
were lodged at the old mission at Refugio in the fall of 1829 before choosing
a site on the Goliad to Laredo Road where the Atascosito Road forded the Nueces
River.
The move was completed by 1830 but conditions at the settlement
were extremely primitive. An official townsite four leagues square was granted
by Mexican Land commissioner José Antonio Saucedo in late 1831 and was declared
Villa de San Patricio de Hibernia to honor St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
In 1834 the town dropped the extra Spanish baggage and the town took on the simplified
name of San Patricio.
In 1836 the Matamoros Expedition led by Col. Francis
W. Johnson began to march on Mexico, but were met by Gen. José Urrea's troops
and defeated before they could get started. The dead from the battle of San Patricio
were interred in what is now known as "the Old Cemetery on the Hill." Families
fled the threat of future attack and retreated to Victoria,
leaving behind their livestock and property. The town became a ghost town for
the first time and remained as such until the arrival of Gen. Zachary Taylor in
1845. Troops were stationed in San Patricio and it slowly returned to normal.
San Patricio was designated the county seat by the Texas Legislature on March
17, 1836. A post office was granted in 1848. The town was on the Cotton Road and
the valuable cotton trade and the open country attracted bandits who gave the
area an unsavory reputation. In the 1880s the town had a population of 200 which
had doubled by 1890. In 1876 two schools were established: St. Paul's Academy
for boys and St. Joseph's Convent for girls.
In 1894 Sinton
was declared to be the new county seat and San Patricio declined accordingly.
The town was disincorporated in 1901 and the town was virtually abandoned - becoming
a ghost for the second time.
In 1872 the City of Corpus
Christi was seeking to annex land on the Nueces River which included the former
town. This land-grab rallied area residents and they reincorporated San Patricio
in August of 1972. The fight rekindled interest in the town's history and the
San Patricio Restoration Society has since built replicas of the towns early buildings
- including the 1872 courthouse. The population has declined in recent years from
369 in 1990 to 318 for the 2000 census.
San
Patricio Area Hotels - Book Here & Save
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Christi Hotels
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Hotels
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San Patricio Chronicles
Hanging preceded
death of a town by Delbert Trew
Chipita Rodriquez died on Friday,
Nov. 13th, 1863. She is believed to be the only woman ever legally hanged by the
state of Texas. Though guilty by circumstantial evidence only, her death seemed
to place a curse on the town of San Patricio, Texas, as it signaled the beginning
of the end of the small settlement... more
People
Sarge
Cummings Master of the Long Loop Linda-Kirkpatrick
Robert H. “Sarge”
Cummings was known as a master of the long loop, a cowboy term for rustler. This
old coot was loved by all, except for maybe the Texas Rangers. Children were ecstatic
whenever he came to visit a spell. Some would crawl under his chair just to spin
the rowels on his spurs as he spun tales of the wild west.
Sarge was
born in Texas around 1852. His parents, Mary Elizabeth Torrence and Lawrence Cummings,
struggled to keep the family going in the small Irish community of San Patricio,
Texas... more |
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