DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — let me take you through San Patricio County. Now, this stretch of South Texas has been on somebody's map for a long, long time. Spanish exploration and activity in the area dated all the way back to 1519 — before most of the rest of what we call Texas had even earned a second glance.
That thread of Spanish presence ran right through to 1821, when Mexico won its independence and things started changing hands. Seven years later — 1828 — two men named James McGloin and John McMullen received a Mexican land grant right here in this territory. And what did they do with it?
They brought Irish colonists. Out here. To South Texas.
You have to appreciate the audacity of that journey — pulling folks across an ocean and into a land grant on the edge of a very unsettled frontier. The county itself was created in 1836, and it was named for St. Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland — a nod, plain as day, to the people McGloin and McMullen had brought to settle the place.
The county organized the following year, 1837, with the town of San Patricio as its county seat. Now here's where that southern boundary earns its keep in the history books. The Nueces River — running along the bottom edge of San Patricio County — played a major role in the events leading up to the war with Mexico, which ran from 1846 to 1848.
Zachary Taylor's Army had traveled across this very county, and then crossed that river. That crossing, right along this county's edge, was part of the chain of events that pulled two nations into open conflict. The county seat held at San Patricio for decades, then in 1893 it was moved to Sinton, where it sits to this day.
From 1519 to Irish settlers, from the Nueces River to a shooting war — San Patricio County has had its share of history rolling right through it.
What the marker says
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