Guadalupe County is the county that is the subject of my report. Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836 and Texas was annexed in 1845 by the United States. In 1842, The Republic of Texas organized Guadalupe County as a judicial county. This designation was removed a year later when the Supreme Court declared these types of counties as unconstitutional. In March 1846 after the annexation, the legislature established Guadalupe County from parts of other counties. Guadalupe County had an area of 862 square miles in 1846. The Guadalupe County is named after the Guadalupe River and the river was named by the Spanish in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The geographic …show more content…
The population of the county grew rapidly and the 1850 census reports approximately 1,100 white residents. The German-Americans were the dominant influence in the shaping of the county's cultural identity. Many immigrants from other southern states brought their slaves and that made the slave population rise. Most of the slaveholders were small farmers and there were approximately 200 slave holders during which there were significant increases in harvests, livestock and cotton production. The demographics of this area vary widely depending on the time frame. There were French, Spanish, Mexican, and German and by 1880 ethnic Germans accounted for 40 percent of the county population. The Methodists are believed to have established the first church in the county at Seguin in 1841. Eventually Seguin had Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Catholic congregations, in addition to Methodist as a variety of religions. The county voted Democratic in presidential elections from the end of Reconstruction until 1892. In 1896 the county voted Republican and from then on, Democratic presidential candidates carried the county only five times after