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The history of the early settlement of

Texas is more a tale of migration than

immigration—specifically the epic west-

ward movement of Scots-Irish families from

their beachheads in Appalachia. “They arrived in

great numbers,” wrote James Michener of these

Borderer clans, in his book Texas, “filtering down the

famed Natchez Trace from Pennsylvania, Ohio,

Kentucky, and Tennessee. They were a resolute, cou-

rageous, self-driven, arrogant lot.” The Scots-Irish set

the feisty character of the republic and of the state

that followed, but they were not the only European

national group to shape the destiny of Texas. Starting

in the 1840s, Germans came in droves too, establish-

ing the town of Fredericksburg and creating a

German-speaking belt that stretched across much of

the state. Czechs and Poles soon fol-

lowed. Those peoples managed to

preserve their language and folkways

for a generation or two, but soon enough

Texas would change them. Carved from the

bosom of Mexico, Texas gave rise to a hybrid culture

like no other. That culture was self-selecting, draw-

ing out the best traits of each group that settled

here: the tolerant pluralism of northern European

immigrants, the scrappy individualism of the

Scots-Irish, the reformist drive of Hispanic Texans,

and so on. The story continues today, as new

groups, many from traditional immigrant hubs like

California and New York, are absorbed into Texas’s

welcoming fold.

Fourth of July parade on Main Street, Fredericksburg, 1905.

TEXAS GOT IT RIGHT!

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