Peters Colony
Lewisville, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(within area encompassed by) A reservation of land made under an Empresario contract by the Republic of Texas, 1841. Its purpose was to introduce colonists into this area. Under the first of four contracts, W. S. Peters and 19 partners agreed to introduce 600 families in three years, to furnish each with seed, shot, and a cabin, and also to survey the land. Each family was to receive 640 acres of land free and each single man, 320 acres. Of this, the company could take half for its services. Three later contracts altered terms somewhat, and although the land company underwent several internal upheavals, by 1848 there were approximately 1,800 colonists and their families in the area. Resentment over the company's share of land climaxed in 1852 when settlers drove out the unpopular agent, Henry O. Hedgcoxe, in the so-called "Hedgcoxe War." Because of its success in opening a large area of the frontier and its later effect on Texas land and immigration policy, the law establishing this colony was one of the most important in the Republic. In spite of unusual tumult and hardship, the final Peters Colony area today extends over five counties and encompasses one-fourth of the state's population, including its largest combined metropolitan area. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1841 the Republic of Texas granted W. S. Peters and his partners an empresario contract to plant hundreds of colonist families across this stretch of the frontier, promising each a cabin, seed, and hundreds of free acres. Despite internal upheavals and settlers' resentment over the company's land share — which boiled over into the 1852 "Hedgcoxe War" that drove out the company agent — some 1,800 colonists had arrived by 1848. The colony's reach eventually spread over five counties encompassing what became one of the state's largest metropolitan regions.
Why it matters
Peters Colony was one of the Republic's most consequential land experiments, shaping Texas immigration and land policy and seeding the future Dallas–Fort Worth region.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Peters Colony belongs to one of the most formative chapters in Texas history: the years when Texas was not a state but an independent republic, hungry for settlers to fill its vast, sparsely populated frontier. In 1841 the young Republic of Texas, short on people and cash but rich in land, turned to a tried method for populating its interior — the empresario system, in which private companies were granted large reservations of land in exchange for recruiting colonists.
The area this marker encompasses was raw frontier then, at the edge of Anglo-American settlement in north-central Texas. Bringing families here meant real hazards and real hardship, and the terms offered — free land, in generous amounts — reflected how much the Republic needed people willing to take the risk.
This was the era of westward expansion and of the great immigration that would remake the region. The colony's story runs from the Republic's earliest days through the tumult of its growth, and its legacy would outlast the Republic itself by generations.
People & events
The colony took shape under an empresario contract granted to W. S. Peters and nineteen partners. Under the first of four contracts, the company agreed to introduce 600 families within three years, to furnish each with seed, shot, and a cabin, and to survey the land. Each family was promised 640 acres free, and each single man 320 — though the company could take half of a colonist's grant for its services, a provision that would breed lasting resentment.
Three later contracts adjusted the terms, and the land company weathered several internal upheavals, but the settlers kept coming. By 1848 roughly 1,800 colonists and their families had taken up land in the area — a substantial population planted on what had been open frontier.
The friction over the company's share of land finally boiled over in 1852 in the episode remembered as the "Hedgcoxe War." Settlers, angry at the company's demands, drove out its unpopular agent, Henry O. Hedgcoxe. Despite the name, it was less a war than a determined settlers' revolt — but it captured the depth of feeling over who truly owned the land that colonists had worked to improve.
Its place in the American story
Peters Colony was, by the marker's own reckoning, among the most consequential laws the Republic of Texas ever passed. Its success in opening a large stretch of frontier shaped the land and immigration policy that Texas carried with it into statehood, influencing how an enormous region would be settled and governed.
The colony also illustrates a distinctively American tension that played out across the frontier: the collision between land companies seeking profit and the settlers who did the actual work of clearing, building, and farming. The Hedgcoxe War was one local eruption of that struggle, echoing similar conflicts over land rights throughout the expanding United States.
Most striking is the colony's long shadow. The final Peters Colony area spread across five counties and today encompasses about a quarter of Texas's population, including its largest combined metropolitan region. A Republic-era experiment in recruiting cabin-and-seed settlers helped seed one of the great urban centers of modern America — a direct line from empresario contract to sprawling metropolis.
If you visit
This is a marker that asks you to look past what's immediately in front of you and imagine an entire region transformed. Standing here, you're within the bounds of a land reservation that once spread over five counties, in country that was open frontier when the first colonists arrived — and is now part of one of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. That contrast is the whole point; let it sink in.
Use the marker as a lens on the landscape around you. The terms it records — 640 free acres, a cabin, seed and shot — are the offer that drew families across dangerous country to this place, and the modern development that surrounds the site is the long-term result of that gamble paying off.
Because Peters Colony is a story about a whole region rather than a single building, it makes a great anchor for a themed drive through the north-central Texas counties it once covered. Read the marker, then watch how the countryside and the cities fold into one another as you travel — and remember that a Republic desperate for settlers, and the colonists who answered, set the whole thing in motion.
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
- · W. S. Peters
- · Henry O. Hedgcoxe
Related events
- · Hedgcoxe War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Furneaux Cemetery
Carrollton, TX
Furneaux Cemetery began in 1884 when English immigrant William Furneaux, who had come to Texas in 1857 and married into a Peters Colony family, was buried on farmland he had set aside as a public graveyard. A neighbor soon donated adjoining land for a church, a cemetery association was chartered in 1888, and the surrounding heights became known as Cemetery Hill. When a 1924 tornado destroyed the frame church, the association took over the grounds.
The Peters Colony in Tarrant County
Grapevine, TX
In 1841 the Republic of Texas contracted with W.S. Peters of Kentucky and his associates to recruit settlers for the empty north-central prairies, launching the largest of the empresario colonies. By 1848 the Peters Colony spread across nearly two million acres, taking in all of Tarrant County, though rampant speculation in land certificates muddied the enterprise. Only about 150 colonist families — mostly American-born farmers of modest means — actually settled in the county, but they opened the door.
Warner Cemetery
Carrollton, TX
In 1852, Robert and Sarah Dean Warner emigrated from Ireland to Texas, joining the Peters Colony and establishing a farm in this area. The family graveyard began with the 1873 death of Robert Warner, Jr., and holds ten marked graves—most of them Warner kin—along with at least one unmarked burial. The Warners and their descendants went on to become leaders in the Carrollton community.
Texian Land and Emigration Company
Farmers Branch, TX
This site marks the first agency, opened in January 1845, of the colonization venture better known as Peters' Colony. Under a contract secured from the Republic of Texas in 1841, William S. Peters and his associates introduced more than ten thousand settlers across seventeen counties of North Texas, seeding communities like Farmers Branch.