Guadalupe County /

Guadalupe County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 89,023. It is named for the Guadalupe River. The seat of the county is Seguin. It was founded in 1846. Guadalupe County is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area. Indigenous paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers were the first inhabitants of the area. Later Indian tribes settled in the area, including Tonkawa, Karankawa, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, and Comanche. In 1689, Alonso de Leon named the Guadalupe River for Spain in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In 1806, French army officer José de la Baume, who later joined the Spanish army, was rewarded for his services to Spain with title to 27,000 acres (110 km) of Texas land, the original El Capote Ranch. The grant was reaffirmed by the Republic of Mexico. Following Mexico's independence from Spain, Anglos from the North settled in Texas in 1821 and claimed Mexican citizenship. In 1825, Guadalupe County was part of Green DeWitt's petition for a land grant to establish a colony in Texas, which was approved by the Mexican government. From 1827 to 1835, twenty-two families settled the area as part of DeWitt's colony. Following Texas's