These are a collection of short stories revealing the little intimate glimpses of the romances and tragedies that have surrounded the lives of people who have owned land and who have left the record of their joys and sorrows written into the land title papers. Behind most land titles, there is a unique story behind it and these stories are intertwined with principles of real estate law. Through each story, we see the demonstration of how the lives of people and the history of the land are the things that make our title to that property. You will discover through these delightful short stories how land was transferred through various deeds of titles, identifying the necessity for wills; the development of Houston, Texas, and an appreciation for peoples’ values as well as for the past.

ROMANCE IN LAND TITLES

By Albert R. Young

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Albert R. Young
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-2446-6

Contents

Chapter 1 "The Patchwork Quilt"...................................1Chapter 2 "Chain of Ownership - Houston 1836".....................12Chapter 3 "M & M Building"........................................21Chapter 4 "Houston's Buffalo Bayou"...............................27Chapter 5 "The Manager of the Show"...............................37Chapter 6 "Strive for Achievement"................................43Chapter 7 "A Salute to Tyler".....................................53Chapter 8 "Fading the Dice".......................................62Chapter 9 "A Deed to Almighty God"................................74Chapter 10 "The Paper Sack Deed"...................................84Chapter 11 "Michael"...............................................95Chapter 12 "All Things Considered".................................105Chapter 13 "The Vacant House"......................................117Chapter 14 "What's in a Name?".....................................123Chapter 15 "The Vagabond's Will"...................................135Chapter 16 "The Treaty of Peace"...................................145Chapter 17 "1 Believe..............................................156

Chapter One

The Patchwork Quilt

Like the various pieces of a patch work quilt, the land title map of Texas is divided into various tracts of land. Each of these tracts of land is known as a survey and there is no uniformity as to size or shape of these surveys, but they fit together like a puzzle picture or a patchwork quilt that you and I were familiar with when we were children in the homes of our grandparents. Each of these patches has for its boundaries the edges of the other parcels around it and each of these tracts of land, irregular in size, irregular in shape and area, bears the name and memory of that first family who received the land grant to that tract of land from the government. Some of these land grants in the form of patches on the quilt were granted by the Spanish government. Some were granted by the Mexican government, and some of these grants were made by Texas a Republic; but in each and every instance, these grants of land, linked together, joining the boundaries of grants that have previously been given, become another piece of land out of the whole patchwork of surveys that cover the entire state, and in every instance, these large tracts of land bear the name of the family to whom the grant was made. Forever afterward every parcel of land inside that grant is described in the records as a part of John Jones Survey, a part of Jim Smith Survey, or a part of that survey bearing the name of the family that first owned the land.

I remember one of those patchwork quilts in my boyhood days. It covered the big bed in the spare bedroom out at grandmother's house, and I remember it was called the "crazy quilt" because the scraps that had been used to make the surface of the blanket were so odd in shape and size and so various in colors that it produced an effect like Jacob's coat. There would be scraps of red flannel taken from grandfather's cast-off winter underwear. There would be pieces of silk taken from grandmother's old party dresses. There would be a large piece of woolen goods that came from the castoff clothing of some member of the family. And as little children, we used to point our fingers to the various pieces of cloth and recall among ourselves that this was a part of various clothing that we, as children, had long since thrown into the rag bag. The memory attached to each parcel of that patchwork quilt was a stamp of the memory of who had used that particular parcel of goods. These various patches worked together, had been carefully quilted in such a manner, each to the other that it gave an effect of a solid map made up of many, many scraps, none of them uniform as to size or area, but all of them lay boundary to boundary, line to line, as a great picture puzzle to form a complete, beautiful and serviceable quilt.

That is the best example I can give you of the way land surveys are fitted together, covering as a blanket the State of Texas, some coming from one government, some from another government, but all of them bearing a history in land ownership that is stamped and identified with the memory and name of the family who first secured the grant from the government and who first settled on that tract of land.

Harris County, likewise, is made up in its land grants of this patchwork effect and even the city of Houston is crossed and recrossed with imaginary lines that marked the boundaries between the various land grants or various patches on the title map of the city. Down in the heart of our business section, the corners of some of these big land grants are found. One of the earliest grants, and possibly the most important land grant in Houston, was the John Austin tract. This great tract of land bears its name because it was given by the Mexican government to John Austin in the year 1824. As for the size of this tract, you must realize that it covers two leagues of land and includes all of that property in Houston from about the point of the Houston Y.M.C.A. out north Main Street, including Houston Heights, and for its western boundary comes down in a line between Cottage Grove and Brlrnner Addition, crossing Washington Avenue, crossing Buffalo Bayou, and coming back for its southern line along San Felipe Road and West Dallas Street.

Meeting the John Austin tract of land on the south is a great tract known as the Obedience Smith Survey. Also, meeting the John Austin tract are great tracts known as the James Holman Survey and the James Wells Survey. These great patches of land on the title map cover a large portion of downtown Houston and all of that quarter of Houston laying to the south and western part of the city. Over in the southern and eastern part of the city the adjoining surveys are the S.M. Williams Surveys and the Harris and Wilson Surveys and the John Brown Survey, and these imaginary boundary lines between these various land grants are all knitted together to form the basis of the title to every tract of land in the county, and if your property is located within the area of one of these grants, then your title begins with the grant from the government to John Austin, or the grant to Obedience Smith, or the others who held these various large land grants.

Inside of each of these great patches of land there has been many sales, subdivisions and smaller tracts platted into lots, and parcels of land, but all of the tracts in the John Austin grant go back to the beginning with the grant to John Austin, and all of the tracts in the other surveys likewise go back to the beginning of the great tract of land that was first given by the government.

In the earliest colonization days of Texas, the Spanish government, and later the Mexican government, were anxious to have the vast territory known as Texas colonized by emigrants and to that purpose certain colonization laws were passed by the Mexican nation by the terms of which colonization was opened in Texas. This was as early as 1824. It was provided by these laws that every person who would induce settlers to come to the state of Texas should be called an Impresario, and that he would receive for his services five leagues of land for each one hundred families. `This law was also peculiar in that it stated that each of the families included in the project of colonization whose occupation would be farming would receive one labour of land, approximately 177 acres, and if their occupation should also include raising cattle, they should receive enough additional land to make up one league, and the bachelors or single men who came to Texas as colonists had to content themselves with one-fourth part of the amount intended for families, but if they should marry then they would receive a similar quantity as a family, with the condition that if they should marry Mexican women they should have one-fourth more than other colonist families.

It is peculiar to note the way in which these early settlers were put in possession of the land they were given by the Mexican government. The reading of these old instruments show the care and protection that were given to land titles even in the beginning of title history. It seems that in 1824 when John Austin was given his grant of land here in Harris County, that forms such a big part of our land titles of today, that John Austin made application that he had moved to this place with the intention of locating in the colony" and that he hoped that he would be admitted with his family as one of the settlers in the colony of Texas, and he prayed to the Mexican nation that it would grant to him and give him possession of a portion of the land which the law allows to colonists and he also stated that he would promptly cultivate that land and would subject himself to the existing laws of the country. His application for land was in all things considered and it was reported favorably and at the town of San Felipe D. Austin, his application found favor and he was granted two leagues of land for himself and his family.

The instrument of deed given to John Austin after his application shows that John Vince, Robert Vince and John Keller, the surveyor, John Cook and John Austin, all made a trip to the land situated on the bayou, called Buffalo Bayou, and there set the stakes and marked the boundaries of the tract in a native wilderness. The witnesses testified in that instrument that they gave to John Austin possession of the land and that they took him by the hand going all over the land told him in a loud and clear voice that in the name of the government of the Mexican nation they gave him possession of that land, and it is reported in the same instrument that John Austin, on being given possession of said land, shouted loudly that it was his land and there was no one there to deny it and that he pulled grasses, threw stones across the land, placed stakes at the corners of his land, all of which was for the purpose of a public demonstration to show that it was his land.

In each and every instance these old records show that these land grants now marked with the imaginary lines crossing and recrossing the city of Houston, were given by the Mexican government in the identical same manner that John Austin received his land grant. In every instance these old settlers were taken by the hand and led over the land with a surveyor and the corners were there marked in his presence and he, to show his ownership, cried out in a loud voice that it was his land, and drank of the water, threw stones, cut down trees and did other things to evidence his ownership and evidence the fact that he was in possession. Later they built houses. Later came cultivation, but these first acts are all told of in these old instruments to mark the beginning of ownership.

What the gold rush was to California the colonization laws were to Texas, and emigrants came to Texas to take up and settle this land under the Mexican government. Principal of these emigrants and early developers was Moses Austin, and his son, Stephen F. Austin. Application to settle three hundred families from the United States in Texas was originally made by Moses Austin to Spanish authorities in 1820, and his application was granted in 1821. His application showed that he started out from Little Rock in October, 1820, bound for Texas, and history, relates that when he started out he had a gray horse, a mule, a Negro man and $50.00 in traveling expenses. All traveling was done by horseback, wagons and boats. When he reached Texas, San Antonio was the seat of government in Texas, and on reaching this post in company with his negro servant, he was required to answer questions, and he there stated that he was 53 years of age, a Catholic, and a former subject of the King of Spain. He wished to settle in Texas and cultivate cotton, sugar cane and corn, and that he brought no goods to trade, having with him only a pistol, his two horses, some clothing for personal use and traveling funds, and he represented that he could secure three hundred families who also desired to carry out the same object with him. Governor Martinet, the Mexican governor, at first, without examining his papers, ordered him to leave and get out the province as soon as he could get out. But while he was returning from his conference with the governor, while he was crossing the plaza to his lodging, Moses Austin met Baron De Bastrop, whom he had known years before in Louisiana, and the Baron took his documents and interceded for him with the Mexican governor to the extent that he was granted a contract among the first contracts to introduce settlers in Texas.

But Moses Austin had overtaxed himself on his trip to Texas and his return trip home. The hardships of these travels were too much for this pioneer. He never recovered from the exposure and exhaustion he suffered on this trip and he died in Missouri in the spring of 1821, but his dying request was that Stephen F. Austin, his son, should carry out his vision. He called his wife to his bedside and with much distress and difficulty of speech he begged her to tell his son to take his place and "if God in His wisdom thought best to disappoint him in the accomplishment of his plan, he begged God to extend His goodness to his son to enable him to go on with the business in the same way Moses Austin would have done." Stephen F. Austin, a young man, 28 years of age, accepted the responsibility placed upon him by his father, and after the death of Moses Austin, he came to Texas and was recognized by the Mexican government, under the contracts of his father, as the heir to these rights. More power was vested in Stephen F. Austin as the Impresario of Mexico than was given to any other promoter of the early colonization of Texas.

Stephen F. Austin was a conscientious, diligent and capable man with his heart and interest in the building up of the state and though his trials and troubles were many, though he was accused of various wrongs by his own colonists, and though he was even imprisoned by the Mexican government that had given the grant, he continued in the mighty work of building Texas. The three hundred original settlers were introduced in Texas and became land owners under grants from Stephen F. Austin. The history of his life and services in these land grants and in this colonization is a history of self-denial and consecration to his work. Living in a pioneer community, with log cabins, lack of protection, and often lack of food, he was sometimes loved by the colonists, sometimes hated by the colonists, even feared by the Mexican government. He spent two years of that time in prison in Mexico, but through it all, the romance, tragedy and achievement that surrounded his life were the romance and history of our land titles. Stephen F. Austin's first permit from the government of Mexico to found a colony in Texas provided he should settle three hundred families. For this reason those who settled in the first colony were called the "old three hundred." These were a social people. There were weddings and social gatherings. There were dances, parties, and though the accommodations were of the pioneer type, there were seasons of happiness. At these weddings it was necessary for the bride and bridegroom to be married by a Catholic Priest, because the Mexican government, being Catholic, did not recognize the legality of the marriage performed by anyone except the Catholic Priest. There were few priests in this part of Texas at that time, so the people, for their own convenience, were often married by a Civil Magistrate, who was called an Alcalde, and later were married by the church on the next trip made by the Catholic Father. Usually after the marriage the next thing in order was the wedding supper, which was the best that the market could afford. Sometimes this wedding supper would be only dry venison dipped in honey, but the joys of the social activities were not dampened by the absence of the finery, but only heightened by the fact that they were the best that was obtainable for the occasion. The wedding supper being over, the floors were cleared for dancing, and it mattered not that the floors were made of split logs, for when the young folk danced in those days they did not glide around; they shuffled and double shuffled, wheeled and cut the pigeon wing, and amidst these revelries the wood from the rough floor became splinters. There were some of the boys at these dances who were not provided with shoes, as moccasins were the usual footwear obtainable at the frontier, and shoes were expensive as they had to be brought down by boat from the eastern markets, and moccasins were not built for dancing on rough floors, and besides did not make enough noise, so the exchange of shoes during the dance was customary and acceptable courtesy. These joys and sorrows of these stories all were the foundation of colonization, arid this colonization was the beginning of our land titles.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from ROMANCE IN LAND TITLESby Albert R. Young Copyright © 2011 by Albert R. Young. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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