Mercer's Colony Eastern Boundary

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's how I'd put the story of Mercer's Colony Eastern Boundary. Now, eighteen counties is a lot of Texas. Eighteen current Texas counties, spread across north central Texas, and back in 1844 a man named Charles Fenton Mercer looked at that stretch of land and said, I'm going to fill it with families.

His contract was ambitious, even by Texas standards. Five hundred families. Five years.

That was the deal. Settle five hundred families inside those five years, and the colony would take shape. The boundaries ran roughly from the Palestine and Waco area on the south, out to the Brazos River on the west, and all the way up toward McKinney on the north.

But here's the thing about big plans in young Texas. Various legal issues came along and complicated that contract something considerable. The settling didn't go the way the paperwork intended.

And yet, the land certificates were ultimately issued to the settlers. Whatever legal tangles tried to swallow this colony whole, the settlers did get their land. Charles Fenton Mercer himself, though, severed all connections with the grant in 1852.

Whatever the colony became after that, it became without him. The marker you're passing right now stands on the east line of that old colony boundary, here in Van Zandt County. Researched by Nelda Jones, and placed in 1997.

And the final word on Mercer's Colony? Descendants of those original settlers still reside in Texas today. The legal issues are long gone.

The families stayed.

What the marker says

In 1844 Charles Fenton Mercer led an effort to colonize an area in north central Texas equal to portions of 18 current Texas counties. His contract to settle 500 families in five years was complicated by various legal issues, but land certificates were ultimately issued to the settlers. Mercer severed all connections with the grant in 1852. This marks the east line of the colony whose boundaries were approximately Palestine and Waco on the south, the Brazos River on the west, and the McKinney area on the north. Descendants of Mercer's colony settlers still reside in Texas. (1997) Incise on base: Researched by Nelda Jones