Phineas de Cordova

With his brother, established a Land Agency that became one of the largest such agencies that ever operated in the Southwest.

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Phineas De Cordova, early Austin newspaperman and land agent, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 28, 1819, the son of Raphael and Leah De Cordova. He went to Jamaica as a young man and engaged in business. He married a Miss Delgado in 1847 and moved to Texas later that year, first to Galveston and Houston, then in 1848 to Austin to work with his half-brother, Jacob De Cordova, on the Texas Herald. He also edited an Austin weekly called the Southwestern American for a time. In the 1850s he established a general land and agency business, which he operated with his son until poor health forced his retirement in the 1890s. De Cordova was a member of the Odd Fellows and of Temple Beth Israel of Austin. He died in Austin on May 8, 1903, and was buried in the Jewish section of Oakwood Cemetery. He was survived by one of his two children.