Victoria Texas :

The Victoria of today has been a rich story in the making. Excavations have shown the Victoria region played host to not only a busy mound-building society, but many prehistoric people as well. Its unique close position between the ocean and the grassy prairies has long been a draw for those seeking a new home, as well as for Native American tribes such as the Jaraname, Toncahua, Carancahua, Lipan, and Comanche.

It is said that the first European to come to Victoria was Cabeza de Vaca in 1530. The story is that after being shipwrecked, he and three other survivors met up with a friendly Native American tribe and lived by the "River of Nuts", before returning home to Spain to write of his experiences in Texas.

150 years later, more Europeans came to Victoria as part of an expedition by the adventurous explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle. Robert left France in 1684 with the intention to colonize the Mississippi for his country. However, his party met a number of misfortunes, including sickness and shipwreck, before their diminished number found itself far off course and settled on the Garcitas River. (A few miles east of the present city of Victoria)

Alonso de Leon, the well-known explorer, was sent to find Robert's settlement and thwart any French designs on Spanish territory. In 1689 Alonso came upon Robert's campsite and discovered the group had been killed. Inspired by the sadness, one of de Leon's soldiers wrote the first known elegy written in Texas, in Victoria:

Sad and fateful site
Where only solitude doth reign
Reduced to this sorry plight
Thy settlers' efforts all proved vain

Although the people were gone, a timber and mud fort and six houses remained. The Spaniards were anxious that no French should settle there again. In 1722 the Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo built a new fort over the old one and called it Nuestra Senora de Loreto. On the other side of the river, the Spaniards created a mission.

A few years later the mission and fort were moved to the northwest part of the county, now known as Mission Valley. In a field overlooking the present site of the city of Victoria, the Toncahua tribe settled into a peaceful agricultural existence, as promoted by the missionaries. Yet the Comanches quickly destroyed this society with its infamous attacks. New Spain would flourish with wealth and culture, but the area now known as Victoria was mostly forgotten territory for many years.

It would not be until 1824 that Victoria would truly plant its roots. Don Martin de Leon, a rancher from Tamaulipas, Mexico, had his eye on the grasslands of south Texas. He petitioned the Texas government to allow him and 41 families to create a town on the lower Guadalupe called Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesus Victoria. His petition was granted, and was unique in that it did not contain restrictions such as the number of families required, a time limit for settling, or even an outline of boundaries.

By October, 12 of the families were settled, but the others had been delayed by extreme weather conditions. 16 Anglo-American families joined the colony in the spring. Each colonist received a league of land and a building lot in town. In 1827, Martin asked governor Rafael Gonzales to assign boundaries for their colony. In 1828 this was done. In 1829, Martin asked for more land for another 150 families. This was also granted, but unfortunately the new land crossed over into Green DeWitt's (another empresario) contract, and had to be taken back. However, in 1831 DeWitt's contract expired and the government would not renew it. Martin was free to colonize this land, which did not help an already stormy relationship between him and DeWitt. In 1833 the devastating cholera epidemic took many lives, including Martin de Leon's, and the 150 families were never brought to the now-available land.

In fact, quite a few border disputes were afoot amongst the different empresarios and the government contracts were unclear to everyone. Even colony names were unclear, as Victoria was often described as "Cypress Grove", or "Las Sabinas", due to the impressive number of cypress trees in the area at the time. These trees soon vanished due to their popularity as a building material, and Victoria was especially known for its cypress shingles.

Ultimately, Victoria was named for Guadalupe Victoria, a friend of Martin's and the first president of Mexico. ('Guadalupe Victoria' was the assumed name of Juan Felix Fernandez, who took the name in the Mexican War of Independence to honor both the patron saint of Mexico and the victory over the Spainards.) After Texas became independent it was shortened to simply 'Victoria', and is today the only city in Texas which was established by a native of Mexico.