Austin County: Colonial Capital of Texas

Austin County was the center focal point of the Mexican state of Texas from 1822 to 1836. Stephen F. Austin selected his namesake town of San Felipe de Austin on the banks of the Brazos River in 1823 to be the headquarters of his enterprise, Austin’s Colony, that settled hundreds of American families in what had been a Spanish wilderness. Many of the early chapters of Texas history were written here. Mexicans in 1828 knew San Felipe as the “spark” that would later cost them Texas. Fully one-quarter of the men who fought in the Texian Revolution called Austin County home. Hundreds of thousands of today’s Texans of German and Czech heritage can trace their ancestor’s first homes in America to Austin County. The great cities of Texas grew up elsewhere. Railroads came and influenced development, but during the 1900’s the county evolved to become a small, sleepy, rural, agricultural home to some 15,000 inhabitants. Today the county is again in a growth mode as it is near enough to Houston to attract residents who work there but want to raise their families in a rural setting. The beautiful rolling, wooded hills and prairies of the Post Oak Savannah are increasingly sought by those who want a peaceful retreat from their urban homes. This is the first comprehensive book to be written of the history of Austin County, the Colonial Capital of Texas.