The Hedgcoxe War

Hedgcoxe was the land company's agent, and his May 1852 proclamation, giving colonists until August 4 to file claims with him, struck settlers as arrogant. A mass meeting in Dallas on July 15 accused him of fraud, and the next day John J. Good led about 100 armed men to his office in Collin County. The Handbook of Texas says no violence was done: his files were carried to the Dallas courthouse, and he was ordered out and fled to Austin. An amendment passed on February 7, 1853 satisfied both sides and settled the colonists' title troubles.

What the plaque says

The Hedgcoxe War Distribution of land in the Peters Colony of north Texas triggered a dispute known as the Hedgcoxe War. The Texas Emigration & Land Co. organized the colony under an 1841 Republic of Texas law which allowed it to keep one-half of a settler's grant. After protests, this right was repealed, but in Feb. 1852 the company was compensated with 1,088,000 acres of vacant land within the colony. This action angered settlers and speculators with land certificates, who feared that the large grant would lower land values. At that time, the company's unpopular agent, English-born Henry O. Hedgcoxe, operated a land office on nearby Office Creek. On July 12 and 13, 1852, a group of Dallas men broke in and examined the land records. They reported to a meeting in Dallas on July 15 that the company was defrauding the colonists. John J. Good (1827-82), later mayor of Dallas, then led a band of armed men to Hedgcoxe's office. Hedgcoxe escaped, but most of his files were seized and the office burned. After the raid, tensions quickly cooled. The law was amended so that settlers obtained their grants from the state rather than from the company agent. The company kept its land grant, however, and Hedgcoxe returned to help survey the tract. (1975)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 17 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square — 17 mi
  An 1896 courthouse by W. C. Dodson in Denton limestone, pink granite and two sandstones, restored in 2004, now a free county museum on a lawn holding the grave of John B. Denton.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 21 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 21 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.

More markers nearby

• Baccus Cemetery — 3.7 mi
• First Baptist Church, Hebron — 4.2 mi
• Site of Lebanon — 4.9 mi
• Liberty Baptist Church — 5.4 mi