This M.G. Casillas survey is a portion of the "First Class Head of Family Headright" Land Grant consisting of about 3454 acres (19 ½ Labors) that was originally issued to Maria Casillas. The full Land Grant was for 4605 acres (One League plus One Labor) and it is assumed that the remaining 1151 acres of the original Grant was either retained by the Casillas family or perhaps sold to other parties.

Maria Casillas was a widow from San Antonio, Bexar County who qualified for this land grant from the newly formed Republic of Texas as a native of Texas and a "Head of Family". She directly assigned this 3454 acre portion of her grant to William Steele for $600 and Steele simultaneously transferred that purchase over to John McCreary for $700 on April 24, 1837.

The Land Grant Certificate (No.442), which was required to verify the validity of the original Grant, was issued March 21, 1838. John McCreary did not actually select the property and execute the land survey until April 1850 and the Land Patent No. 138 was subsequently assigned to McCreary on February 13, 1851.

This Casillas survey is located just West of Highway 75, just South of Madisonville and about 15 miles North of Mossy Grove. The Bedias Creek runs generally in an East to West line almost bisecting the property. The portion of this property lying North of Bedias Creek is in Madison County and the Southern portion is in Walker County.

Following a number of subsequent owners of this property, H.A. McAdams purchased ½ interest in 2301 acres out of this survey from John Smithers on December 26, 1884 and later purchased Smithers’ remaining ½ interest on August 23, 1886. Hiram later sold 1118 acres of this property, including ½ of the mineral rights, to the Gibbs Brothers on May 29, 1923.

The Mossy Grove Gas Unit #1 is located on this property and began production in 1966. This Gas Well Unit has been in continuous production since that time.

NOTE: Numerous other documents related to the sales history of this property are posted as separate items in the Documents segment of the website.