In the years after Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, thousands of American settlers crossed into Texas to start new lives.  Among those was Haden Edwards, who became an important early empresario and sought to make a fortune in the new land.  Instead, he would find disaster in one of the earliest battles between Mexico and Texas settlers.

Haden Edwards was born in Virginia in 1771.  His father, Jonathan Edwards, moved the family to Kentucky in 1780 where he quickly became a wealthy landowner and a prominent citizen, eventually becoming a U. S. Senator.

Inspired by his father’s success in real estate, the younger Edwards became determined to make a fortune himself.  In 1820, he made his way down to Mississippi with his younger brother Benjamin and acquired a large plantation.

Not long afterward, he heard about Spain’s attempts to populate its northern frontier territories in Texas by inviting in American settlers.  When Mexico won independence in 1821, it pursued the same policies.  Edwards teamed up with Stephen F. Austin and others to gain large land grants that they could subdivide.  In 1823, Mexico agreed to make Austin and Edwards empresarios. After negotiating terms of settlement with the government and helping finance Austin’s colonization efforts, Edwards settled in the Nacogdoches area in 1825.

Nacogdoches was already a growing settlement.  The community produced the first English-language newspaper in Texas.  Edwards’s colony was allowed to bring in 800 families, but there were already a number of land claims in the area dating back decades.

Edwards, however, grew increasingly frustrated in his role.  Older land claims in the area clashed with the lands he was trying to sell to colonists while he increasingly antagonistic to Austin over loans and with competing claims from Austin’s colony.  As a result, Edwards decided in September that he would have the sole authority to verify land claims.  He made an edict stating that if anyone could not verify their claims with a title deed, he would consider the land his and subject to sale.  He quickly declared a number of old Spanish titles to be forgeries.  This immediately led to a clash with the Mexican government, which demanded Edwards honor the old claims. 

Divisions in the community rose quickly.

In October 1826, the Mexican government cancelled Edwards’s empresario grant.  Edwards and his brother gathered several supporters and decided to strike back.  The situation spiraled out of control, and several Edwards supporters arrested local officials supported by the old settlers. 

Edwards decided to strike back against the Mexican government and protect his land and investments.  In December, he and a group of  30 supporters seized Nacogdoches and declared the area independent, forming the Republic of Fredonia.  He formed an alliance with Cherokee chief Richard Fields, put together a fighting force, and even formed a flag – a red and white banner with “Independence, Freedom and Justice” written across the top.

Lt. Col. Mateo Ahumada gathered a strike force of 110 troops in San Antonio and headed to Nacogdoches.  Austin, shocked by the actions of Edwards, decided to help the Mexican government and sent a group of 250 volunteers to assist.  When Ahumada’s and Austin’s forces arrived, the Cherokees decided to stay out of the conflict, and Edwards’s followers scattered.  The Republic of Fredonia lasted only five weeks. 

In response to the rebellion, Mexico briefly suspended all immigration from the United States in 1830.  Edwards, however, briefly returned to the area in August 1832 when settlers clashed with Mexican authorities at the Battle of Nacogdoches.  Dozens died in the bitter firefight as the Texians crushed the army detachment and took the remaining 250 prisoners to San Antonio.

Edwards again left for a short time and quietly returned to Nacogdoches in 1835 during the Texas Revolution.  Now age 64, his influence had diminished, but he remained a vocal critic of Mexican authorities.  After the war, he remained in Nacogdoches for the remainder of his days.  He died in August 1849 at age 78.

His brother Benjamin eventually moved to Mississippi and would never return.  During the Texas Revolution, he attempted to raise money and troops for the Texas cause.  He died in 1837 at age 57 while running for governor of Mississippi.

For the Texans basking in their victories over Mexico, the reputation of Haden Edwards only increased in later years.  In 1858, Edwards County in West Texas was named for him by the state legislature.  The Edwards Plateau, the huge geologic uplift laying to the west of San Antonio and Austin and extending out to the Pecos River, is also named for him.