Irish Immigrants in Refugio
Refugio, Refugio County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The history of settlement in Refugio is closely associated with Ballygarrett, County Wexford, Ireland. Irish natives James Power (c. 1788-1852) and James Hewetson (1796-1870), both of whom immigrated to the United States in the early 19th Century and later became citizens of Mexico, obtained permission from the Mexican government to oversee the immigration of more than 200 Irish families to Texas in the 1830s. The first group of Irish settlers arrived on the Texas Gulf Coast in 1834. A cholera epidemic and the loss of provisions and equipment in rough waters as the immigrants reached the shore delayed their arrival in Refugio, where they were to settle near the former Spanish mission of Nuestra Senora del Refugio. The colony soon was established, however, and almost immediately the new settlers were embroiled in the cause of Texas independence from Mexico. Many Irishmen fought in the Texas Army and later served in the Republic of Texas Congress. The Irish people established a lasting presence in the Refugio area. Many descendants of the early immigrants still reside in the area, some on land granted to their ancestors in the 1830s.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Refugio's roots reach back to Ballygarrett in County Wexford, Ireland, home of empresarios James Power and James Hewetson, who won Mexican permission to bring more than 200 Irish families to Texas in the 1830s. The first colonists arrived in 1834, surviving cholera and shipwreck-rough surf before settling near the old Spanish mission of Nuestra Señora del Refugio. Almost at once they were swept into the fight for Texas independence, and their descendants still farm land granted to their ancestors.
Why it matters
The Irish colony shows how immigrant communities shaped Texas at its founding, adding an Old World strand to a Spanish and Mexican borderland.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1820s and 1830s, Texas was part of Mexico, and it was thinly settled. To fill the land and strengthen the frontier, the Mexican government granted empresario contracts. Under these arrangements, individual promoters agreed to bring in colonists who would become Mexican citizens and, in theory, Catholics. Stephen F. Austin's colony is the best known, but there were others.
Ireland in those years was a place many people were looking to leave. Most were poor tenant farmers with little hope of owning land. Because Mexican colonists were expected to be Catholic, Catholic Irish families were a natural fit for Texas colonization. More than one Irish colony was founded along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Refugio area already had a long history. The Spanish mission of Nuestra Señora del Refugio had been established there in the late colonial period to minister to Native peoples of the coast. By the time the Irish arrived, the mission era was over, but its name and remains marked the place.
People & events
Two Irishmen from the Wexford area, James Power and James Hewetson, made the colony possible. Both had come to the Americas in the early nineteenth century and had become Mexican citizens. They won permission from the Mexican government to bring more than two hundred Irish families to Texas. Many of the settlers came from around Ballygarrett in County Wexford, which tied the new colony closely to one small corner of Ireland.
The first colonists reached the Texas coast in 1834, and the crossing was a hard one. Cholera struck the immigrants. Provisions and equipment were lost in the rough surf as they tried to get ashore. Those setbacks delayed their journey to Refugio. Families who had crossed an ocean for land and a new start lost relatives and belongings before they ever saw it.
The colony did take root near the old mission. The settlers barely had time to settle in before they were caught up in the Texas Revolution. Many Irishmen from the colony fought in the Texas Army, and some later served in the Congress of the Republic of Texas. Families who had just become Mexican citizens found themselves helping to create a new nation.
Its place in the American story
Texas history is often told as a story of Anglo-American settlers from the U.S. South meeting Spanish and Mexican Tejanos. The Refugio colony complicates that picture. Irish Catholic immigrants played a real part in settling Texas and in the fight for independence, which shows how international the Texas frontier actually was.
The colony is also an early chapter in the larger story of Irish immigration to America. It came more than a decade before the famine migration of the 1840s brought huge numbers of Irish to American cities. These families chose land on a distant frontier rather than jobs in an eastern port.
Perhaps most striking is how long they stayed. According to the marker, descendants of the original settlers still live in the area, some of them on land granted to their ancestors in the 1830s. Few places in Texas can trace that kind of family continuity back to the Mexican era.
If you visit
Refugio is a small South Texas town in the coastal plain, within reach of Corpus Christi and Victoria. It sits on the historic route between the Gulf Coast and the interior. The flat, open country gives you a sense of how exposed and remote the colony must have felt in 1834.
Look for signs of the town's deep past. The name itself comes from the Spanish mission, and Irish surnames still turn up in the community. Local churches and cemeteries often hold the most direct traces of the families who settled here.
Refugio fits naturally into a road trip through the Texas Revolution sites of the coastal bend, alongside nearby Goliad. Standing here, think about families who survived disease and shipwreck to reach this spot, only to find themselves in the middle of a revolution.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · James Power
- · James Hewetson
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Empresario James Power
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Born in Ireland, James Power reached Mexican Texas in 1823 and, with fellow Irishman James Hewetson, won empresario contracts to plant Irish Catholic and Mexican families along the coastal plain between the Guadalupe and Nueces. His recruiting voyage from Ireland ended in sickness and shipwreck, yet the colony endured. A friend of Sam Houston, Power signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and Constitution and later served in the Republic's Senate.
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