Joe Herring Jr.: Found in my Kerr County files: a document signed by the first governor of the State of Texas

Texas granted Thornton F. Hollis 640 acres in 1847.
Click on any image to enlarge.

I found something interesting in my files this week.

It’s an original Texas land grant (or patent) bearing the seal of the General Land Office, and signed by J. Pinckney Henderson in 1847.

Henderson was the first governor of the State of Texas; he served less than two years. For a portion of his term of office, he took a leave of absence to take personal command of troops in the field during the Mexican War; after the war he resumed his duties as governor but refused to run for a second term. Later, he represented Texas in the U.S. Senate.

James Pinckney Henderson

The land document is in very good shape for something signed 176 years ago. It measures 13.5 x 15.5 inches, and was printed on a very thick parchment stock. It was basically a form, where handwritten details were added to a printed sheet of paper.

There were many reasons for the new state government of Texas to offer land to its citizens and others. Land grants were a key instrument for encouraging settlement and development in the state. The purpose of land grants was to provide incentives for individuals and families to establish homes and businesses on the frontier.

At the time, much of Texas was still a relatively undeveloped frontier region, and the government hoped to encourage settlement and development by offering land grants to settlers.

The field notes for this particular land grant were written by the deputy surveyor for the Bexar District of Texas, Joseph A. Tivy. Many years later, Tivy lived in Kerrville, and gave land to establish Kerrville’s public schools. He was also the first mayor of Kerrville.

He wrote these field notes on December 7, 1846:

“Said survey No. 143 in Section 2. Situated on the Guadalupe River, about 55 miles northwest of San Antonio in Bexar County.

“Beginning at an Elm tree 3 inches in diameter on the bank of the river….”

Another corner of the tract is marked by “a Cypress tree 7 inches in diameter,” while another corner is marked by a cypress 14 inches in diameter. A cottonwood tree is also referenced in the field notes.

If those trees still exist, after over 175 years of floods and the many other calamities to which a tree might fall victim, they’d likely be slightly larger.

The original grant was for 640 acres.

Governor Henderson granted the land to Thornton F. Hollis, his heirs and assigns FOREVER. That word is capitalized on the document.

Hollis had previously appeared before the Board of Land Commissioners for the County of Galveston on July 6, 1846, where he certified he came to Texas in 1838, he was married and had never obtained a certificate or headright of land. These facts meant he was entitled to 640 acres of land in Texas, due to an “act of Congress approved 16 January 1843.” This was an act approved before Texas was a state in the Union.

Hollis had no intention of settling the land granted to him by the state government of Texas. Once he had obtained the necessary paperwork from the Galveston land commissioners, he sold his land grant to John S. Snyder and Alfred F. James for $50. He did not delay: he sold it the very same day the Galveston officials certified his qualifications for the land grant.

It’s likely Hollis was recruited to apply. It was an easy way to earn $50. It’s unlikely he ever saw the land patented in his name.

I doubt Snyder or James held on to the property for very long, either. I’m not sure the intended effects of the land grant program, which was the settlement of the frontier, were often achieved. I am sure the program encouraged speculation in land.

The land patent document for Thornton F. Hollis was signed by Governor Henderson on January 29, 1847. It went through a number of hands before landing in my files. There is a notation on the back of the document of its being recorded in Kerr County’s land records by an assistant Kerr County Clerk, R. L. Bacon, in 1872. He affixed the gold seal of Kerr County to the back of the document.

The patent itself does not mention Kerr County or Kerrville, because in 1847 neither existed; they were created in 1856.

Where exactly was this land, which was given by the state of Texas to Mr. Hollis?

Thompson's Sanatorium, Kerrville

Here’s the story:

Years later, in 1936, Texas bought most of the 640 acres back from one of its many subsequent owners, Dr. Sam Thompson. The State of Texas paid him $80,000 for the land and its improvements, a hospital called Thompson Sanatorium.

In 1935, the Forty-fourth Texas Legislature had appropriated $200,000 for the establishment of a tuberculosis hospital for Black patients. On June 1, 1937, the facility opened as the ‘Kerrville State Sanatorium;’ it was under the direction of Dr. H. Y. Swayze.

Today the hospital has a different mission and is called the Kerrville State Hospital.

Trees may still mark the corners of the original property.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who is sometimes surprised by what he finds in his files. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times March 25, 2023.

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