Famous Frenchmen



Henri Castro
  

John James Audobon


Jean Lafitte


Henri Castro


Henri Castro was a very successful empresario in the Texas Republic. He was born in France of Portuguese Jewish ancestry in 1786. He arrived in the United States in 1827. He returned to France in 1838 and became a partner in the banking house of Lafitte and Company. There, he attempted to negotiate a $5,000,000 loan for the Republic of Texas.

While in Texas in 1842, Henri Castro entered into a contract with the Texan government to settle a colony of 600 French families on two grants: the first west of San Antonio, and the second grant bordering the Rio Grande. Although he was opposed by French diplomats in Texas and by the French government, he was successful in his colonization scheme. By 1847, he had settled 485 families and 457 single men on his grant along the Medina River. There, he established Castroville, for which he was famous, in 1844, as well as the villages of Quihi in 1845, Vandenburg in 1846, and D'Hanis in 1847. While he was establishing towns, he spent his considerable fortune and impoverished his family. On his way home to France, he died of yellow fever at Monterrey, Mexico.

John James Audobon

Courtesy of Institute of Texan Cultures


John James Audobon was the Louisiana-born son of a French sea captain. Educated in France, Audobon returned to America to oversee the family property. His son, John Woodhouse Audobon, followed in his father's occupational footsteps. In 1837, John J. Audobon, accompanied by his son, John W., visited Galveston Island and nearby islands in a somewhat disappointing search for new species of birds, animals, and plants. He also traveled to Houston, then the capitol of the Texas Republic, and recorded some observations of the village. He met President Sam Houston and members of his cabinet. The scientist was unforgettably impressed with the striking dress and dominating personality of the soldier-statesman. The ornithological results of the trip can be found in the fourth volume of his Birds of America.

Jean Lafitte

Courtesy of Institute of Texan Cultures


Born in Bayonne, France, Jean Laffite was the son of French father and Spanish mother. He became a privateer at a young age, and until 1814, when he was forced away by authorities, the base of his operations was Barataria Island off the Louisiana coast. The following year he fought under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. While he was at the Cresent City, Lafitte offered to be a secret agent for the Spanish Crown. While on an assignment, he became very familiar with Galveston Island. Lafitte tactfully won the allegiance of the renegades, and since Spain was gradually losing her Mexican dominion anyway, set up his own "Republic." Lafitte's pirate "Republic" on Galveston Island numbered more than 1,000 people at the peak of its notoriety in 1818.

His home was an impressive red painted structure with cannons mounted in the second floor windows. Spain was powerless to dislodge him from his island retreat, and America had no jurisdiction there. His downfall was brought by unautorized piracy by his lieutenants on American ships. In May, 1820, Lafitte and a handpicked crew sailed away on his favorite vessel, "The Pride." In 1826, mortally ill, he returned to Mexico to die.

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