Silvestre De León (1802–1842) was the second son born to the influential De León family in

Victoria, Texas Victoria is a small city in South Texas and county seat of Victoria County, Texas. The population was 65,534 as of the 2020 census. The three counties of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 111,163 as of the 2000 censu ...

. He became the third

alcalde Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) a ...

of Victoria. De León joined his brother-in-law

Plácido Benavides Plácido Benavides (1810–1837) was an early Mexican-born settler in De Leon's Colony, Victoria County, Texas. Benavides earned himself the sobriquet of the Paul Revere of Texas for his 1836 journey from San Patricio to Goliad to Victoria, warn ...

to fight with

Stephen F. Austin Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,Hatch (1999), p. 43. he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization ...

at the 1835

Siege of Béxar The siege of Béxar (or Béjar) was an early campaign of the Texas Revolution in which a volunteer Texian army defeated Mexican forces at San Antonio de Béxar (now San Antonio, Texas). Texians had become disillusioned with the Mexican governme ...

. He joined the rest of the De León family in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

in 1836 after Brigadier General Thomas Jefferson Rusk ordered the evacuation of Mexican families from Victoria. In 1842, he returned to Victoria and was murdered by persons unknown. Texas Historical Marker number 6544 placed at Evergreen Cemetery in 1972 acknowledges Silvestre De León's contribution to Texas.

Early life

Silvestre De León was born in 1802 in Texas, the third child of

empresario An empresario () was a person who had been granted the right to settle on land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for settling the eastern areas of Coahuila y Tejas in the early nineteenth century. The word in Spanish for entrep ...

Martín De León Martín De León (1765–1833) was a rancher and wealthy Mexican empresario in Texas who was descended from Spanish people, Spanish aristocracy. He was the patriarch of one of the prominent founding families of early Texas. De León and his wif ...

and his wife

Patricia de la Garza De León Patricia de la Garza De León (1775–1849) was the matriarch of one of the prominent founding families of early Texas. Doña Patricia raised ten children, some of whom helped change the course of history. At age 49, she uprooted her life in 1824 t ...

. Older brother

Fernando De León Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...

had been born in Mexico in 1798. Sister Candelaria, who married José Miguel Aldrete, was born in Texas in 1800. They would eventually be joined by two more brothers: Felix (1806) and Agapito (1808). Five more sisters would also be born into the family: Guadalupe (1804) who married Desedrio Garcia; Maria (1810) who married Rafael Manchola; Refugia (1812) who married

José María Jesús Carbajal José María Jesús Carbajal (1809–1874) (also spelled Carvajal, Caravajal, Carabajal, and Carbahal) was a Mexican Tejano who opposed the Centralist government installed by Antonio López de Santa Anna, but was a conscientious objector who refus ...

; Augustina (1814) who married

; and Francisca (1818) who married Vincente Dosal.

Alcalde

Along with his family, Silvestre was one of the co-founders of De León's Colony, becoming a colonial merchant, as well as co-founder of the city of Victoria, Texas. De León became the third

of Victoria. Martín De León had been the first alcalde, while Silvestre's brother-in-law Plácido Benavides had been the second. After Benavides built the fortress known as "Plácido's Round House" (or the "Round Top House") the two brothers-in-law engaged in several attacks against the

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...

and

Karankawa The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John ...

Indian tribes.

War against Santa Anna

When

Antonio López de Santa Anna Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (; 21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876),Callcott, Wilfred H., "Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez De,''Handbook of Texas Online'' Retrieved 18 April 2017. usually known as Santa Ann ...

revoked the

1824 Constitution of Mexico The Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States of 1824 ( es, Constitución Federal de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos de 1824) was enacted on October 4 of 1824, after the overthrow of the Mexican Empire of Agustin de Iturbide. In the new Fr ...

and installed his own political machine in 1833, many

Tejano Tejanos (, ; singular: ''Tejano/a''; Spanish for "Texan", originally borrowed from the Caddo ''tayshas'') are the residents of the state of Texas who are culturally descended from the Mexican population of Tejas and Coahuila that lived in the ...

s were opposed to the regime. Some of the De León extended family, specifically Benavides, Carbajal and brother Fernando, joined with John Joseph Linn to fight Santa Anna's dictatorship.Chance (2006) p.28 De León contributed livestock and equipment for the Texan resistance. In 1835, he joined the Benavides unit and fought under

during the two-month

campaign to drive out

Martín Perfecto de Cos Martín Perfecto de Cos (1800–1 October 1854) was a Mexican Army general and politician during the mid-19th century. Born in Veracruz, the son of an attorney, he became an army cadet at the age of 20, a lieutenant in 1821, and a brigadier gener ...

Louisiana exile

Although many Mexicans were opposed to Santa Anna's regime, they were not necessarily in favor of Texas becoming an independent state. On July 20, 1836, Brigadier General Thomas Jefferson Rusk ordered Mexican families in the Victoria area to be evacuated in an attempt to stem any assistance being given to Santa Anna. The Carbajal, Benavides and De León families left for

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, forced to abandon their money and possessions.

Death

In 1842, De León returned to Victoria to try to reclaim the family's property, and was murdered by persons unknown. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Victoria, Texas.

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (RTHL) is a designation awarded by the Texas Historical Commission for historically and architecturally significant properties in the U.S. state of Texas. RTHL is a legal designation and the highest honor the sta ...

number 6544 placed at Evergreen Cemetery in 1972 acknowledges Silvestre De León's contribution to Texas.

Personal life

Silvestre De León married Rosalie de la Garza. The couple had two sons, Martín and Francisco. Upon Silvestre's death, the sons were adopted by Silvestre's brother Fernando De León. On April 12, 1833, they received a 4,428-acre tract of land from the Mexican government. The town of

Nursery, Texas Nursery is an unincorporated community in Victoria County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Victoria Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high ...

was founded in 1884 on part of that land.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:De Leon, Silvestre 1802 births 1842 deaths 19th-century Mexican people People of Spanish Texas People of the Texas Revolution People of Mexican Texas