Martín De León

The Empresario Martín De León (1765-1833) was a visionary who started the cattle industry in Texas, and whose fortune helped finance the Texans in their fight for independence. He was the founder of Victoria, Texas. He was born in 1765 in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He married Patricia de la Garza and moved to Texas to start a ranch with cattle given to the couple by her father, General de la Garza. He registered the first cattle brand in Texas in 1807, an E and J connected, signifying "Espiritu de Jesus". He started a colony in 1824. He passed away in 1833, leaving his family an estate worth over half a million dollars. In today's dollars, it would be over $165 million. The De León family contributed horses, mules, cattle, military equipment, and provisions to the Texas army throughout the Texas Revolution that started in 1835. After Texas won the war in 1836, Texans of Mexican descent were losing their property, even though they risked their lives fighting on the side of the Texans. Two of Martín De León's sons were murdered, and the rest of family was forced to flee for their lives, abandoning property valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.