A truism about history is that the winner writes it.  And if there is no winner, we create one, because we must always have a protagonist. 

By Felix Alvarado

Take, for instance, Nolan County west of Fort Worth.  Before Mexico attained independence, all land west of the Mississippi River was claimed by the Spanish Throne.  “The land belonged to the sovereign country of Spain.  If you were not a Spaniard, you needed a passport to cross west of the Mississippi River.  Most of us learned of the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the 6th grade and Pike’s Peak.   What we did not learn was that these incursions were at the behest of the US government.  Both of these excursions were invasions of the sovereign country of Spain. We could call them attacks of a foreign country.

If you trespassed into the Spanish Territory, as a minimum, Spain was going to ignore the incursion as it did with the Lewis and Clark Expedition or send you to jail as it did to Pike.  

Nolan County is named after Phillip Nolan. Phillip Nolan was a leading character in the late 1700’s history of Spanish North America.  From the book Pierre Vidal (Noel M. Loomis and Abraham P. Nasatir)., I gleaned that Nolan was a wheeler-dealer, spy, and horse thief.  Phillip Nolan knew the penalty for interring the Spanish Territory without a passport.  When caught, he was allowed to surrender.  He declined.  He signed his death warrant.

 Inscribed in this monument in Bosque County is the following comment: “Nolan’s death aroused a wave of indignation that led to Texas independence.” It is somewhat of a stretch since, in 1801, Texas was still a part of Spain, and foreigners were not allowed without the Spanish governor’s written authorization.  

 A hero was created and given credit for something that still had not happened.  It is time to revise Texas History and tell what happened.