McGloin, James, Homestead
a.k.a. See Also:McGloin, James, Homestead (Boundary Increase)
1 mi. NW of San Patricio on FM 666, San Patricio, TXJames McGloin, a native of County Sligo, Ireland, was>^ born about 1801. According to family tradition, he missed the boat on which he had taken passage to Australia, met John McMullen at an English port, and was induced by McMullen to go with him to Matamoros, Mexico. After arriving at Matamoros in 1827, McMullen and McGloin petitioned the legislature of the state of Coahuila and Texas in August, 1828, for the territory which had in October, 1825, been granted to John Purnell and Benjamin Drake Lovell. Purnell had been drowned just as he was boarding a vessel to go to Texas. Consequently, Lovell asked the government to release him from the contract in order that McMullen and McGloin might obtain the territory.
A contract was made with McMullen and McGloin on August 16, 1828, for the introduction of two hundred Irish families. When nothing was done after two years, the contract was considered suspended by the Law of April 6, 1830. In January, 1834, the empresarios obtained an extension of their contract for four years. Colonization began anew, but in this colony settlers were not introduced as fast as in the other Irish colony, located at Coleto Creek and the mouth of the Nueces River, that of Power and Hewebson. McMullen and McGloin fulfilled their con-tract so far as time permitted; circumstances, however, did not allow them to continue their work. In November, 1835, when the Texans established a Provisional Government, the work of the empresarios was brought to a close.
The issuing of titles by the empresarios McMullen and McGloin was stopped in November, 1835, and in June, 1837, the Republic of Texas declared that all empresario contracts had ceased on the day of the Texas Declaration of Independence and that all vacant lands were the property of the state. Before the government of Texas suspended the work of the commissioners and empresarios, titles in the McMullen and McGloin Colony had been issued for eighty-four grants of land.
During the Texas Revolution, most of the colonists were I captured and held in Matamoros until after the Battle of San Jacinto, when they were allowed to return to their homes. McGloih never became prominent in the political affairs of Texas; however he was always influential among the Irish colonists on the coast. His wise leadership kept the colony intact during the Texas Revolution and all the lands granted by him were acknowledged under the Republic.
McGloin married Elizabeth McMullen, the only child of his partner, in 1831. He established his home on his 315.77-acre farm adjacent to Round Lake and died on or about July 19, 1856, at his homestead. He was buried in the original cemetery at San Patricio. The McGloin Homestead has descended in the McGloin family to the present day.
Bibliography
Webb, Walter P., ed. Handbook of Texas. Austin, 1952.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.