deleonpatricia

The founders of the settlement of Victoria, Texas, de León and her husband, Martín established their Santa Margarita Ranch on the Nueces River in southern Texas, and raised a well-educated, productive family of ten children. Following Mexico’s independence in 1821, the couple settled forty-one families on the banks of the Guadalupe River. Among these early settlers, some would align themselves with Anglos and others with Mexico during the Texas Revolution. Fearing for their safety, de León, now the matriarch of the family moved them to New Orleans, returning to Texas after it became a state in 1845. Having lost much of their land holdings, de León encouraged her sons and daughters to fight for their land in the courts. A wealthy woman at the time of her death, de León left land and cattle to three widowed daughters, and funds to construct the church of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Victoria, Texas.