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Auction: 364 - Autographs & Documents e-Auction featuring the Mike Roth Aviation Collection Part I
Lot: 156

[Texas History; Texas Land Commission]: Juan Antonio Padilla. Padilla arrived in Texas in 1810 as a cavalry officer stationed at San Antonio. After Mexican independence, he served as secretary of state of Coahuila and Texas from 1825 to 1828. A friend of Stephen F. Austin and advocate of Anglo-American colonization, Padilla was appointed General Land Commissioner in August 1828. His mission in Texas, though was very short-lived, for after issuing only three land titles, Padilla was arrested on April 26, 1830 for murder and fraud and stripped of his citizenship. The charges were likely politically motivated. He was eventually found innocent and his arrest was lifted in 1832. He left San Antonio and returned in April 1834 to Monclova, then the state capital, where he was able to get his citizenship restored. In May he resumed his post as secretary of state. Disaffected from both the national and state governments, he returned to Texas in 1835 at the outbreak of the rebellion. There he joined George Collinsworth's Company and participated in the capture of Victoria. He died in Houston in 1839. Autograph Document Signed "J. Antonio Padilla". One and one-quarter page, 8 x 13 ¼", Nacogdoches, April 10, 1832. Writing to Captain D. Ventura Ramon in Monclova, Padilla says "Please send payment to the order of C. Jesus de la Garza of Bavia Company the amount of fifty-nine Pesos…value received by the same row that I leave credited to an account; that's it, a receipt, and the knowledge that it will be well paid." Stitched to the letter is a small receipt showing Padilla's math. Light age toning, areas of fold separation stitched with thread. Very Good.

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