Texas' deep Scottish roots
From the Texas Scottish Heritage Society:
Over 40% of the original "300" Steven 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, Stephen F. Austin, 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.
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