Editing Bee County, Texas (section)

==History==
On December 8, 1857, the [[Texas Legislature]] formed Bee County from sections of Refugio, Live Oak, San Patricio, Goliad, and Karnes Counties, naming it for Colonel Barnard Elliot Bee, who served the Republic of Texas as [[Sam Houston]]'s secretary of war and [[Mirabeau B. Lamar]]'s secretary of state.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Historical Story of Bee County, Texas|last = Ezell|first = Camp|publisher = Beeville Publishing Co|year = 1973|location = Beeville, Texas|pages = 25}}</ref>

During the Anglo-American land speculation of the 1830s, the area's earliest settlers were mainly Irish immigrants, but by the late 1840s and early 1850s, the rise of Jacksonian expansionism inspired Southern whites from the North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Mississippi to occupy and build settlements in the area.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The Origin of Anglo-American Cattle Ranching in Texas: A Documentation of Diffusion from the Lower South|last = Jordan|first = Terry G.|date = Jan 1969|journal = Economic Geography| volume=45 |issue = 45| pages=63–87 | doi=10.2307/143180 | jstor=143180 }}</ref>

As the constitution of the Republic of Texas no longer recognized the Catholic Church (or any church) as the state religion and slave-holding settlers came to dominate the area in the 1840s, small Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist congregations began forming with sustained missionary support from these denominations. Research suggests that Baptists and Methodists comprised 65% of all Texas congregations by 1870.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = A Comparative Approach to Western Religious History: Texas as a Case Study, 1845-1890|last = Pritchard|first = Linda K.|date = 1988|journal = The Western Historical Quarterly| volume=19 | issue=4 | pages=413–430 | doi=10.2307/968321 | jstor=968321 }}</ref>