Over
40% of the original "300" Stephen F. Austin colonists
were of Scottish ancestry.
There
were 30 Scots among those who fought in the Battle of the
Alamo. Piper John MacGregor stood on the adobe walls in
the midst of the battle to pipe the men on in true Scottish
tradition.
Aberdeen
Angus cattle were first exported from Scotland into Texas
in 1883.
Our
ranching term "spread" comes from Gaelic "spreid"
which is a flock of sheep and "spredith" which
means cattle or livestock of any kind.
The
Texas town of Ingram was named after the original Texas
bragger. He wrote home to Scotland telling outrageous stories
extolling Texas.
Ten
men from Scotland financed the building of the state capitol
in Austin. In exchange, the state government gave them 150,000
acres which became the famous XIT Ranch. The XIT stands
for "Ten in Texas".
Most
of the leaders who battled for Texas’ independence
were of Scottish ancestry, i.e., Sam Houston, James Bowie,
David Crockett, Peter J. Bailey, Henry P. Brewster, J.A.
Brooks, David Burnet, Mathew Caldwell, Capt. Ewen Cameron,
S.P. Carson, Robert Cochran.
Over
half of the counties of Texas are named for persons of Scottish
ancestry.
The
colloquialism "y’all" evolved from the Gaelic
construction "sibh vile" (se’ vall) or you
all. In Scotland the phraseology "are you all going?"
or "are we all invited?" is used as opposed to
the English form of "all of us" or "all of
you."
The
oldest signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence was
Collin McKinney, of Scottish descent. Both the county of
Collin and the town of McKinney are named after him.
Famous
early Texas names of Scottish origin: Bigfoot Wallace, John
B. Denton, Cecil Lyon, Burke Burnett, John Simpson Chisum
(Chisholm), Albert S. Johnston, Stephen Crosby, Capt. R.A.
Gillespie, Anthony Lucas, William C. Crane.
