SANTOS COY, MANUEL DE LOS (ca. 1787-ca. 1839). Manuel de los Santos Coy, early settler and politician, the son of Francisco de los Santos, was born about 1787. He was a farmer-rancher on Bayou Loco near Nacogdoches. In November 1826, while a lieutenant of the militia in Nacogdoches, he gathered twenty-four settlers and a few Indians together to march on the leaders of the Fredonian Rebellion. He is credited with forcing the release of the prisoners held by the leaders of the rebellion, which included the alcalde Samuel Norris. He served as regidor of the ayuntamiento of Nacogdoches from 1827 until 1831; during this time he sometimes served as interim alcalde. He was elected alcalde in 1831. Santos Coy first married MarĂa Guadalupe Chirino and later (in 1834) Antonia Acosta; he had four children. He died around 1839.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carolyn Reeves Ericson, Nacogdoches, Gateway to Texas: A Biographical Directory (2 vols., Fort Worth: Arrow-Curtis Printing, 1974, 1987). Edmund Morris Parsons, "The Fredonian Rebellion," Texana 5 (Spring 1967). Elton Prewitt, John W. Clark, Jr., and David S. Dibble, An Assessment of the Archeological and Historical Resources of the Bayou Loco Reservoir Area, Nacogdoches, Texas (Texas Archeological Salvage Project Research Report 11, University of Texas at Austin, 1972).
