Refugio: Ireland on the Texas Gulf Coast

Refugio, Texas takes its name from the Spanish mission Nuestra Senora del Refugio, and its early settlement history is one of the more unusual chapters in Texas colonial life. In the early eighteen thirties, James Power and James Hewetson, two Irishmen who had become Mexican citizens, received permission from the Mexican government to bring Irish families over to colonize this stretch of the Gulf Coast. The first group arrived in eighteen thirty-four, though cholera struck the emigrants, killing perhaps a hundred and fifty in New Orleans, and many who reached Texas were stricken later.

The colonists settled near the former mission site. Almost immediately they were drawn into the Texas Revolution, with many Irish settlers fighting in the Texas Army and later serving in the Republic of Texas Congress. Refugio became the county seat of Refugio County and remains so today, the Irish connection visible in local surnames and historical markers.