San Patricio County

The plaque jumps from the 1837 organization to the 1840s war; between them the county nearly emptied. After the 1836 fighting, most colonists fled to Victoria and other refuges, and the government listed the area as a depopulated zone. A Mexican force under Rafael Vasquez raided the San Patricio area as late as 1842. Corpus Christi served as county seat in 1845-46, until Nueces County took everything south of the river. The 1850 census found only 200 people, three of them enslaved. By 1860 there were 620, including ninety-five enslaved people, and more than 48,000 cattle.

What the plaque says

San Patricio County Spanish exploration and activity in the area dated from 1519, through 1821, when Mexico won its independence. In 1828, James McGloin and John McMullen received a Mexican land grant here, to which they brought Irish colonists. County was created in 1836; named for St. Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland. Organized in 1837, with San Patricio as county seat. Southern boundary of the county, the Nueces River, played a major role in events leading to the war with Mexico (1846-48), including the crossing of the river by Zachary Taylor's Army, which had travelled across the county. County seat was moved to Sinton in 1893. Erected by the State of Texas - 1973

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 2.9 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 9.8 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Texas State Aquarium — 25 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Art Museum of South Texas — 25 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.

More markers nearby

• San Patricio de Hibernia — steps away
• Josepha Rodriguez — steps away
• Courthouses of San Patricio County — steps away
• Battle of San Patricio — steps away