A pair of ambitious Irishmen applied for a giant land grant in sparsely settled Texas on Sept. 20, 1826. They did not want much, just the entire coastal plain between the Sabine and the Nueces!

James Power was 21 years old, when he left the Emerald Isle for the New World in 1809. The shrewd merchant landed in New Orleans and over the next dozen years carved out a comfortable niche for himself.

Power was prosperous but far from satisfied. Scanning the skies for just the right rainbow, he believed ...