I'm proud of my Irish heritage. What the...?! Yep, you heard me, I am proud of my Irish forebears. Although my family's heritage is Spanish, Basque, Mexican and a little French, I can say that I'm part Irish. Just hear me out. Sure, if you've seen me you might think I may be a little Irish because my beard is definitively auburn and my hair also has a reddish tinge to it, but that's because of something altogether different. There are redheads on my Mom's side of the family, with a couple of her aunts being redheads- albeit grey now. And then further back, some of the men where called "hilos de maíz" because their beards looked like the threads, or silks, of an ear of corn. But as far as we all know, that's all from my Spanish ancestry. But all this doesn't explain why I've always had a "thing" for redheaded gals. Anyhow, I digress. What I mean about all this talk about being Irish comes from, well, where I've come from. My hometown in South Texas, resides in San Patricio County, which was home to one of the first Irish settlements in Texas.
In 1828, the first group of families recruited from the Irish population of New York came to the then Mexican province of Coahuila y Texas and settled along the Nueces River, northwest of present day Corpus Christi. The settlement was called San Patricio de Hibernia, after their patron saint, St. Patrick. A few years later, the settlement was legally established as the Municipality of San Patricio. Later still, after the Texas Revolution, San Patricio County was created by the 1836 Congress of the new Republic of Texas, with the initial Irish settlement of San Patricio, being the county seat.
The period between the Texas Revolution and the US-Mexican War, this area was known as a "depopulated area" because gangs of former Mexican soldiers and gringo cattle rustlers roamed this zone relatively unchecked. Once the US annexed Texas in 1845, and with the arrival of General Zachary Taylor, the region began to stabilize. One of the fascinating aspects of the early San Patricio County was that it encompassed a far greater territory than its current size and that most of the surrounding counties came from the original county.
Although predominantly known for crop cultivation in the present, much of the remaining 19th century San Patricio County was known for cattle ranching. One of the largest cattle firms in Texas called San Pat County home, The Coleman, Mathis, & Fulton Pasture Company. By then other small towns began to spring up along the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway. Subsequently, several out of state developers, including David B. Sinton and his son-in-law Charles P. Taft, half brother of President William H. Taft, began to see the area grow, and then created the Taft Ranch, one of the largest ranches in South Texas.
More towns sprouted up from the black soils of the county, again along the rail lines. From those lines also came trainloads of Mexican laborers who were brought in to help clear the land of mesquite and associated brush to prepare the land for farming. Once farming became established, cotton became king, and then later, shared with the cultivating of sorghum grain, both became the county's cash crops. Even though the county is home to several large companies including OxyChem, Sherwin Alumina, and Naval Station Ingleside, cultivated crops still dominate the county's landscape.
The land is still as flat as it was when the first Irish New Yorkers arrived, but the terrain is more cropped covered than with tall prairie grasses. Though the Irish have dispersed throughout the region, there's still some vestiges of Irish culture remaining- The World Champion Rattlesnake Races are held in "Old San Patricio" every March!
Source: The New Handbook of Texas, 1996.
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