Early
History of Nueces County
The first
known inhabitants
of Nueces County were a culture
known as Aransas. The Aransas campsites have been found by
archaeologist in Copano
Bay, Aransas
County, Baffin Bay and Kenedy
County; some
of these campsites are 4,000 years old.
The region has also been occupied by Coahuiltecans,
Karankawas,
Lipan Apaches, and Tonkawas
Indian tribes. These tribes were split into smaller groups to form the
Atakapa,
Borado,
Cavas,
Capoque,
Emet,
Kohani,
Kopani,
Malaquite,
Payaya,
Sana, Tamique,
and many groups (Handbook
of Texas Online).
The French
established a
colony in 1685 under René Robert Cavelier,
Sieur
de La Salle. The
Spanish later raced to the region following the French under Alonso De
León,
the governor of Coahuila (Handbook of Texas Online). On February 26,
1747,
Corpus Christi Bay was finally discovered by Prudencio
de Orobio
y Basterra,
captain of the presidio at La Bahía. A settlement, Villa de Vedoya,
and mission, Nuestra
Señora
del
Soto, was established under the proposal
of José
de Escandón,
governor and captain
general of Nuevo
Santander. (Handbook of Texas Online).
Website maintained by Marti
Hayes, Nueces County Coordinator
TXGenWeb
State Coordinator: Shirley
Cullum
Copyright & copy; 2010-Present. Shirley Cullum, The
TXGenWeb
Project & contributors. All
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