Guadalupe County was originally
a part of Gonzales, which latter was settled by colonists from the United States under Green De Witt, who contracted
among others with the Mexican government, who then owned the country, to bring and settle a given number of families
at various places which were assigned them. De Witt selected a spot on the Guadalupe River one mile below its confluence with the San Marcos
River to plant his first colonists and build a town. In 1825 the first colonists arrived with the surveyor James
Kerr. and went to work. Among these were — Berry, Edward Morehouse, Henry S. Brown, Elijah Stapp, John Wightman,
— Durbin, and Erastus Smith, afterwards known as "Deaf" Smith, the famous spy and scout of the Texas army, This first installment was broken
up by the Indians, and Wightman killed and Durbin severely wounded. By the year 1830 the settlement was firmly
established, and in 1832 the town named Gonzales, for Raphael Gonzales, Provisional Governor of Texas, as was also the county,
which at that time extended to the line of Bexar, including all of the territory
of what is now Guadalupe County.
Seguin was selected as the county seat
of Guadalupe County. It is a
small town situated upon the north bank of the Guadalupe River on the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad, thirty-five miles east San Antonio.
This town when organized in 1838 or 1839, was named after Juan M. Seguin, a Mexican who fought with the Texan.s
against the Imperial Government of Mexico for the Constitution of 1824. Seguin at the present time has a population
of about 4,000 inhabitants; but, when it was selected as the county
seat, there were only a few people there.
