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1825
Empresario Green DeWitt received permission from the Mexican government to establish a colony of 400 families in Texas. He selected a site near the junction of the Guadalupe and San Marcos Rivers for the colony's capital city and named it after Don Rafael Gonzales, the governor of Coahuila-Texas. It was the first Anglo-American settlement west of the Colorado River. -
1826
On July 4, all citizens except one were away from the settlement. Indians attacked, burning cabins and killing the man who had remained.; Fearing more raids, the settlers did not return for several months. -
1827
Settlers returned and established the community closer to the Guadalupe River. They built a small fort to provide protection from the Indians. -
1831
DeWitt asked the Mexican government for a small cannon for protection against the Indians. His request was granted. -
1832
The survey of the town was completed. It established two avenues and an "inner town" with forty‑nine square blocks including seven public squares. The original city charter reserved the avenues and squares for public use only, a restriction that remains in force today. -
1835
Due to continued unrest among the settlers, the Mexican government sent five soldiers to retrieve the cannon. The settlers bravely refused the request. This angered the Mexicans and on September 29, 1835 they returned with 100 dragoons to retrieve the tiny cannon. Only eighteen men, known as "The Old Eighteen", were in Gonzales at the time and again refused to surrender the cannon. SORRY I COULDN'T DO ALL OF TEXT -
1836
With the battle of the Alamo a certainty, Travis sent out a desperate call for reinforcements. The only men to answer that call were the "Immortal Thirty-two" who departed Gonzales February 29, 1836. They, along with nine other Gonzales men, died in the Alamo. Alamo survivor Susanna Dickenson, wife of Almaron Dickenson who died in the Alamo, returned to Gonzales bringing General Sam Houston the news that all Alamo; defenders had perished.
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