Planting memories to celebrate Gonzales County’s past

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The Gonzales County Historical Commission announced a DeWitt Colony tree dedication set to take place Friday, May 13, at 2 p.m. This event will take place at the Kerr Creek gazebo on Saint Louis Street, near the Oak Forest bridge.

The dedication program will be presented by seventh grade social studies students and their teacher, Leslie Patterson. This event is sponsored by Gonzales Spade and Trowel Garden Club and the Gonzales County Historical Commission.

DeWitt’s Colony, one of the major established colonies in the settlement of the state of Texas, was founded in 1825 by Green DeWitt and James Kerr.

DeWitt, influenced by Stephen F. Austin’s success of colonization into Texas territories, as well as a direct influence and personal relationship with Austin, successfully petitioned the Mexican government on April 7, 1825 for an empresario contract to settle four hundred industrious Catholic families. DeWitt, with Baron de Bastrop’s assistance, thus settled DeWitt’s Colony.

This colony was to be adjacent and southwest of Austin’s own grant and was well situation along the Guadalupe river and other important landmarks for success in the Texas frontier. It is historically fitting that this dedication of a tree representing Gonzales County’s history, and representing the future growth of the area, be held along Kerr Creek in what was the capital of the DeWitt Colony.

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