Father Timon was the first priest to say mass in the new towns of Galveston, Houston and Austin, in 1838. He did not remain in Texas. A year later Fathers Joseph Hayden and Edward A. Clarke came from Bardstown, Kentucky, to minister to the Catholics, who were numerous in Lavaca county, and many of whom came from Missouri, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
Father Hayden also attended to the spiritual wants of the Catholics in Refugio and San Patricio, and the other settlements in the coast country. He died less than two years after his arrival. Father Clarke labored in Texas for eighteen years, dying in Houston. Rev. John Murray Odin was ordained bishop of Galveston in 1847. In 1893 there were three Catholic bishops, namely: Gallagher of Galveston, Nerez of San Antonio, and Brennan of Dallas. Rev. Daniel Carl, Rev. A. Rourk and Rev. Andrew McGowan were Methodist clergymen laboring in Texas in 1837.
Dr. Francis Moore was one of the proprietors of the _Telegraph and Texas Register_ in 1837; Martin Carroll Wing was assistant editor of the _Texas Sentinel_ in 1840; and Michael Cronican was one of the proprietors of the _National Register_. B. F. Neill was one of the founders of the _Galveston News_ in 1842, and John D. Logan of the _Texan Advocate_. Robert Loughery in 1848 established the _Texas Republican_.
Among the counties named in honor of persons of Irish origin are: Callahan, Coleman, Collin, Cochran, Crockett, Donley, Foley, Grimes, Hayes, Karnes, Kinney, Linn, McLennand, McMullen, Montgomery, Moore, Martin, Mitchell, Nolan, Terry, and the two Irish colonies are remembered in two counties named San Patricio and Refugio.
Sam Houston, in a speech made in 1855, during the Know-Nothing period, is quoted by the _New Hampshire Patriot_ of June 30, 1855, as saying: “Every drop of blood in my body comes from an Irish source.” It is also stated in the Quarterly of the Texas Historical Association for January, 1899, that when he first went to Texas he was baptized a Catholic, his godmother being Mrs. Eva Catherine Rosine Sterne, wife of Capt. Adolphus Sterne, and mother of Mrs. W. A. Ryan of Houston, Texas.
The Quarterly of the same association for October, 1898, contains an article on Rutersville college. It was founded in 1838 by the Methodist denomination, and the first teacher was Rev. D. N. V. Sullivan. The trustees and honorary trustees, or among them, were: Joseph, William, A. W., Lewis N., Quincy S. and Clarke D. Nail, E. L. and John C. Moore, Daniel Barrett, Jordan Sweeney and Mr. Sweeney, Martha Reagan, Miss Reagan and Elvira Nail. An article in the same Quarterly, written by A. M. Kenny, states that the first school in Austin’s colony was opened in 1835, and was taught by an Irishman named Cahill. Another, in 1836, had for a teacher a Miss McHenry, and a third was taught by a Mr. Dyas, “an old Irish gentleman.”