History of Fort Bend County
containing biographical sketches of
many noted characters
By: A. J. Sowell
Published Houston, Texas.
W.H.; Coyle & Co., stationers and printers,
1904.
Transcribed by: Mary Ann Hetrick
October 02, 2007
22
Fort Bend County.Jane Wilkins, one league, patented May 26th, 1827.
Samuel M. Williams, one league, patented April 11th, 1828.
Reuben D. Wood, one league, patented November 24th, 1832.
Michael Young, one league, patented May 5th, 1831.
Notes by trascriber:
League = 4,428 acres or 25 million square varas.
Labor = 177 acres or 1 million Varas.
Vara = 33 1/3 inches.
The labor is often used as an approximate equivalent to a quarter-section (that is, one quarter of a square mile of land).
In Texas, a vara was defined as 33 1/3 inches. The vara and the corresponding unit of area, the square vara, was introduced in the 19th century to measure Spanish land grants. In Texas, Austin's early surveying contracts required that they use the vara as a standard unit. An acre is equivalent to 5,645.376 Texan square varas.
Standardization of measurement in Texas came with the introduction of varas, cordels, labors and leagues, and can still be found in some real estate trasactions today.
This page was last modified: Sunday, 16-Feb-2020 12:43:45 MST