San Felipe de Austin Historic and Archeological District | |
Location | 15945 FM 1458, San Felipe, Texas |
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Coordinates | 29°48′25″N96°5′51″W / 29.80694°N 96.09750°W |
Area | 97 acres (39 ha) |
Built | 1928 |
Sculptor | John Angel |
Website | San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site |
NRHP reference No. | 16000716 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 11, 2016 |
Designated TSHS | 1940 |
San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site is a historic site located in San Felipe, Austin County, Texas. The site preserves the location of the first provisional capital and Anglo-American colony in Mexican Texas. [2]
San Felipe de Austin was established on the south side of the Brazos River in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin, who initially brought 297 families, the Old Three Hundred, under a contract with the Mexican Government. [3] The town's notable early inhabitants included Noah Smithwick and Horatio Chriesman. By 1830, the town had a population of about 200, general stores, taverns, a hotel, blacksmith shop, post office, newspaper and some forty or fifty log cabins. By the time of the Texas Revolution, San Felipe de Austin was behind only San Antonio as a commercial center. San Felipe de Austin's population approached 600 in 1835, and many more settlers lived nearby.
San Felipe de Austin played an important role in the events of the Texas Revolution. The Texian conventions of 1832 and 1833 and the Consultation assembly of 1835 were all held there. [4] On March 29, 1836, the colonists burned the town to keep it from falling in to the hands of the Mexican Army during the Runaway Scrape.
After the Texan victory at San Jacinto, some colonists returned to San Felipe, but many did not. Although, San Felipe became the county seat of the newly established Austin County in 1837, the town never regained its former stature. A county election in 1846 transferred the county seat to Bellville. Local residents dedicated the original townsite as a commemorative site in 1928. In 1940, the town of San Felipe donated most of the original townsite property to the state.
On January 1, 2008, the site was transferred from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to the Texas Historical Commission, [5] which operates it as a state historic site open to the public. The site features a museum, interpretive trails, a statue of Stephen F. Austin, a replica log cabin, the 1847 Josey Store and relevant historical markers. [6]
Stephen Fuller Austin was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas, he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families and their slaves from the United States to the Tejas region of Mexico in 1825.
Gonzales County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, adjacent to Greater Austin-San Antonio. As of the 2020 census, its population was 19,653. The county is named for its county seat, the city of Gonzales. The county was created in 1836 and organized the following year. As of August 2020, under strict budgetary limitations, the County of Gonzales government-body is unique in that it claims to have no commercial paper, regarding it as "the absence of any county debt."
San Felipe, also known as San Felipe de Austin, is a town in Austin County, Texas, United States. The town was the social, economic, and political center of the early Stephen F. Austin colony. The population was 691 at the 2020 census.
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Edward Murray Burleson was the third vice president of the Republic of Texas. After Texas was annexed to the United States, he served in the State Senate. Prior to his government service in Texas, he was a commander of Texian Army forces during the Texas Revolution. Before moving to Texas, he served in militias in Alabama, Missouri, and Tennessee, and fought in the War of 1812. Burleson was the soldier who was given Santa Anna's sword when he surrendered.
Washington-on-the-Brazos is an unincorporated community along the Brazos River in Washington County, Texas, United States. The town is best known for being the site of the Convention of 1836 and the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
The San Jacinto Monument is a 567.31-foot-high (172.92-meter) column located on the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, about 16 miles due east of downtown Houston. The Art Deco monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. The monument, constructed between 1936 and 1939 and dedicated on April 21, 1939, is the world's tallest masonry column and is part of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. By comparison, the Washington Monument is 554.612 feet (169.046 m) tall, which is the tallest stone monument in the world. The column is an octagonal shaft topped with a 34-foot (10 m) Lone Star – the symbol of Texas. Visitors can take an elevator to the monument's observation deck for a view of Houston and the San Jacinto battlefield.
James Kerr was a doctor, politician, Senator in Missouri, soldier, surveyor and Congressman in Texas who was active in the establishment of the Republic of Texas.
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The Varner–Hogg Plantation State Historic Site is a historical site operated by the Texas Historical Commission. The site was the home of former Governor of Texas James S. Hogg and his family. The site is located outside West Columbia, in Brazoria County.
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Texas Gulf Coast is an intertidal zone which borders the coastal region of South Texas, Southeast Texas, and the Texas Coastal Bend. The Texas coastal geography boundaries the Gulf of Mexico encompassing a geographical distance relative bearing at 367 miles (591 km) of coastline according to CRS and 3,359 miles (5,406 km) of shoreline according to NOAA.
Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga, also known as Aranama Mission or Mission La Bahía, was a Roman Catholic mission established by Spain in 1722 in the Viceroyalty of New Spain—to convert native Karankawa Indians to Christianity. Together with its nearby military fortress, Presidio La Bahía, the mission upheld Spanish territorial claims in the New World against encroachment from France. The third and final location near Goliad, Texas is maintained now as part of Goliad State Park and Historic Site
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Thomas Bell was one of Stephen F. Austin's colonists, having moved to Texas in 1824 although one record has him entering the colony as early as 1822. He was a soldier during the Texas Revolution and received a bounty of land for participating in the Siege of Bexar. He and his brother James Bell later donated the land upon which the town of Bellville, Texas was built. His will was probated in Austin County, Texas.
Thomas Freeman McKinney was a trader, merchant, and a co-founder of Galveston, Texas. Living with his family in the western states of Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri, he started trading in Mexico in 1823. The next year he settled in Stephen F. Austin's Colony, claiming a headright to Texas land while continuing his trading activities. He established a partnership with Samuel May Williams in 1834, and they operated a warehouse at the mouth of the Brazos River. The McKinney & Williams partnership loaned money and vessels to the cause of Texas independence. After Texas gained independence from Mexico, McKinney co-founded Galveston, Texas, and the McKinney & Williams company set up a warehouse and dock in the new town. McKinney later sold his share of the McKinney & Williams partnership and retired to Travis County, Texas.
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