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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:
Belgian settlements by State
VICTOR CONSIDERANT colony in Dallas County
Belgians Settlements in texas at the time of the Civil War
VICTOR CONSIDERANT colony in Dallas County
La société de Colonisation
européano-américaine du Texas fut fondée le 26 septembre 1854 à Bruxelles par
l'écrivain socialiste français Victor Considérant, disciple de Charles Fourier.
Après avoir été au Texas en avant-garde, Considérant y séjourna de 1854 à 1869.
Parmi les colonisateurs belges qui l'accompagnèrent se trouvait Vincent Cousin, un ingénieur-architecte de Mons. La tentative échoua et la plupart des colons
rentrèrent vers la fin de 1856. L'insurrection des États du Sud acheva de ruiner
l'entreprise. Considérant resta au Texas avec son épouse, la mère celle-ci et
Cousin notamment. En 1862, il possédait une propriété à Sabinal, à l'ouest de
San Antonio.
Victor Considerant was born in Salins, France, on October 12, 1808. He became
a Fourierist and one of the leading democratic socialist figures in France
during the second Republic. Because of his participation in the abortive
insurrection of June 13, 1849, against Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Considerant was
forced to flee to Brussels. There he was contacted by Albert Brisbane, an
American Fourierist, who interested him in colonization efforts in Texas.
Considerant visited the United States in 1852-53 and accompanied Brisbane on
a trek that eventually took him through North and Central Texas. His enthusiasm
for the land, climate, and people of Texas induced him to establish the European
Society for the Colonization of Texas upon his return to Belgium. Early in
1855 agents sent by Considerant bought about 2,500 acres of land on the banks of
the Trinity River near Dallas. He planned for La Réunion to be a loosely
structured experimental commune administered by a system of direct democracy.
The participants would share in the profits according to a formula based on the
amount of capital investment and the quantity and quality of labor performed.
In 1854, before adequate provision had
been made for them, nearly 200 colonists made their way to La Réunion.
Many Belgians were included. Occupational backgrounds were
diverse: poets, engineers, architects and workers, but no farmers. Since La
Reunion was intended to be an agricultural colony, this obviously could present
difficulties. Among the first to arrive was John B. Louckx of Louvain,
who was with the advance party. Because of his architectural training he was
appointed supervisor of construction. He was joined by John Philip Goetsel,
also of Louvain, who was in charge of building the rock houses for the settlers.
They were assisted by Ferdinand Michel, another Belgian, who made lime
for the mortar. Belgian Colonists as listed in the Dallas Morning News of
June
3, 1906 and March 22, 1926 When Considerant and his family arrived with more colonists
in June 1855, the settlement was
completely disorganized. After a year of labor and many
natural disasters it became clear that this was not the utopian colony that had
been hoped for. In 1856 Goetsel purchased 17 sections of land
on Mountain Creek, just south of present Grand Prairie, with the intention of
establishing a separate colony for the Belgians. He named the town Louvain after
his home in Belgium. Many La Reunion colonists Joined Goetsel; houses and other
improvements were built as the nucleus of his proposed city. Unfortunately their
location was too near the creek and was subject to the overflow after heavy
rains. Goetsel recognized that the land was unsuitable for farming, so he
attempted to establish a ranching economy. But the colonists were no better
cowboys than they were farmers. Goetsel had invested 30,000 francs in La Reunion, which he
hoped he could withdraw from that project to help his own. The directors refused
to return his money, arguing that Louvain was established in opposition to La
Reunion and that it might draw away their trade. By late 1857 most of the
families at Louvain had decided that they were not suited for the rustic life
and were beginning to move to Dallas and Fort Worth. Eventually Goetsel himself
closed his store and post office and moved to Dallas.
La Réunion colony collapsed in 1859 due to financial insolvency, Considerant,
discouraged but not disillusioned, moved to San Antonio, where he unsuccessfully
attempted to raise funds for another commune. Unable to fulfill his dreams in
Texas and still under a ban of deportation from France, he became an American
citizen and farmed in Bexar County until 1869, when he and his wife returned to
Paris. There he lived as a teacher and socialist sage of the Latin Quarter and
died on December 27, 1893. Houzeau and the Considerant colony : a
critical analysis in 1859 : When one ask again for news from Cousin,
you may reply that I am about a hundred leagues further south; that Cousin
is Agent of the Management (of the European-American Colonization Society) in
Reunion, near Dallas. His position is, I think, very pleasant and very good.
There is at Reunion, with Considerant and Cousin, only a small nucleus. All the
plans of colonization have fallen; there is not and there will be no colony, in
the sense that the underwriters of Europe intended. Socialists can look for
other homes, or stay at home. There are vast lands on which the newcomers have
made costly schools at the expense of the shareholders. Question of agricultural
capacity apart, I understand that of any European who goes aimlessly. Anyone who
starts here in a big and inexperienced way, is sure to wast what he has. The
lands of Reunion will sell well in thirty or fifty years, and the shareholders
who will wait until then can sold without loss or perhaps with advantage.
Meanwhile the plan remains unfulfilled, and about twenty people live on the
estate - extensive but almost all waste land - where were to rise the socialist
palaces and enchanted gardens. Sic transit gloria mundi. This result gives me some or less reward. In my last
relations with Considerant I had proposed a slower and more
prudent course. Instead of starting with the purchase of a square league and
sending a population they had to feed and then fire in the midst of murmurs, I
wanted to start with a commission of study and exploration on the premises . But
besides the need to go faster, eyes were also less severe and less vigilant than
mine. I would not have been ready for the high pressure that followed, but the
other side wanted to surround themselves with only good children, unable to see
the fishing in troubled water, or to resist it. So we broke up, and I did not
even put my name to an action of 25 francs, looked upon as alms. Considerant left after having consumed
the fortune of his mother-in-law and consequently of his wife, nobly
consummated, in the propaganda of his opinions, I want to admit it. But he left
in 1855 penniless and without resources of his own. I am far from reproaching
it; but I must mention the fact, because I find today Considerant - as a
individual - not a manager of the company - as one of the great land owners of
Western Texas. The company ate 1 1/2 million for a result that is zero, or at
least latent. Thirty thousand subscribers, who were to be reimbursed by land and
support at Reunion, were advised to remain quietly in Europe, and to act as if
they had given nothing. I know some - among them Van Espen from
Louvain - who had stopped their business and given all their money. In short, on
the mean-time, the manager raised a large personal fortune, at least a fortune
of the future. Not suspicious at first? In England, where they want action and where they do
not pay for words, the shareholders' meetings did not turn a blind eye to all
this. Considerant was in Europe last year; but he was ruined by
the progressive press of England, and it is said that he had to flee. Let us
leaving the on-say and the hypotheses aside, we can at least define his real
career in two words: fifteen hundred thousand francs; and facing it ... nothing.
Dallas County
(image from "Utopies
et Avant-gardes" web site)