Site of One of the Homes of James Power
Fulton, Aransas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site of One of the Homes of James Power Born in Ireland, 1789 Died in Live Oak Point, Texas, 1852 With James Hewetson he was granted authority January 11, 1828 to settle 200 families in Texas Served Texas under three flags as empresario, soldier, statesman Signed the Texas Declaration of Independence Ever a loyal son of his adopted country Honored and loved by his people Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Irish-born James Power came to Texas as an empresario, winning authority in 1828 with James Hewetson to settle 200 families along the coast. He served his adopted country under three flags as colonizer, soldier, and statesman, and in 1836 he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. This site near Live Oak Point marks one of the homes of a man the State of Texas honored with this monument in 1936.
Why it matters
Power's life bridges Old World immigration and the birth of the Texas Republic, a reminder that the fight for independence drew leaders from across the Atlantic.
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Related people
- · James Power
- · James Hewetson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lamar Cemetery
Fulton, TX
This burial ground served the pioneers of Lamar, the coastal town founded by Irish-born Texas Revolution veteran James W. Byrne, who named it for his friend Mirabeau B. Lamar, president of the Republic of Texas. Its earliest grave belongs to Patrick O'Connor, a bookkeeper who had worked for Byrne in New Orleans. After the town of Lamar vanished by 1915, the neglected cemetery was rescued and restored in the 1940s.
Irish Immigrants in Refugio
Refugio, TX
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.
Empresario James Power
Refugio, TX
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.
Seadrift
Seadrift, TX
Settlement near this spot began in the 1840s when German immigrants landing at Indianola lingered in the area. A post office arrived in 1888, its name drawn from the storm-blown "sea drift" that piled on the shore, and by 1912 A. D. Powers had organized a formal townsite. Within two years Seadrift boasted churches, banks, hotels, and a newspaper, and it survived a punishing 1919 hurricane to remain a coastal resort town.