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.

Austin County: Colonial Capital of Texas

History

Woodrick, James V.

Americas

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Bernardo was Texas' first and largest plantation during the colonial and Republic period. Jared Groce, his family, and the large contingent of enslaved African Americans made this the most successful economic enterprise in Austin's Colony. Events that occurred at Bernardo shaped the course of Texas history. This book presents the story of Bernardo, its people, and of the archaeological project that uncovered its buried remains.

Bernardo: Crossroads, Social Center and Agricultural Showcase of Early Texas

The first European explorer to skirt the coast of the northern Gulf of Mexico gave the name "Espíritu Santo" to the continent's greatest river whose fresh water discharge he observed on the Catholic Feast Day of the Holy Spirit in 1519. A century and a half later, both Spain and France recognized the strategic importance of a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi, but had only a vague idea of its location along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico known then as "La Florida." Cabeza de Vaca lived here as a slave of the local Indians in the 1530's. Events in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries associated with the lands and waters called Espíritu Santo shaped the history of North America. France moved first to establish a permanent presence in the area with an ill-fated expedition headed by La Salle in 1684 that only lasted four years before being destroyed by disease and Karankawa Indians. Spain responded quickly after learning of the French settlement, locating the abandoned site in 1689. A Spanish presidio and mission were established in 1722 near Lavaca Bay which moved inland four years later to the Guadalupe River north of Victoria, where it remained until 1749. The charter of the "La Bahía" mission and presidio complex was to monitor the coastal area and defend it against foreign encroachment while converting the Karankawa, Aranama and other local Indian tribes to Christianity. Victoria, Calhoun and adjacent counties along the central Texas coast constitute an area in which the earliest chapters of Texas history were experienced and recorded. Events in this region during the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century had a profound influence on the evolution of Texas, Mexico and the United States. "La Bahía del Espíritu Santo" was the name applied by the Spanish in the mid-1500's to this region - the name remains today in two places: the reconstructed La Bahía mission and presidio in Goliad, and in Espíritu Santo Bay on the coast.

La Bahía del Espíritu Santo: Texas Sojourns in the Vicinity of Matagorda Bay: 1519 – 1758

Settlement in the Forks of Mill Creek: Settlement in the Forks of Mill Creek

This book documents the cannons used during the Texas Revolution in 1835 and 1836. It describes the 81 cannons present in Texas during 1836, including 21 brought by the Mexican army, and follows their progress and use over the course of the revolution through detailed archival evidence, including pertinent segments of key primary records as well as extensive citations. It details the fate of the famous Texas cannons including the Gonzales Come and Take It cannon, the Twin Sisters and the Alamo and Goliad cannons. It revels new information showing that the Come and Take It cannon is in Texas today, in another form - probably as a church bell in San Antonio. It presents new information indicating the Twin Sisters were not buried in Harrisburg as previously thought, but instead were in Austin from 1840 to 1864, then taken to Brownsville to participate in the final battle of the Civil War. Twenty-one of the cannons used in the Battle of the Alamo have been rediscovered, and ten are on display in San Antonio. The source and ultimate fate of each of the Alamo cannons is discussed. Individuals passionate about Texas history will use this book as a reference for further historical studies. Others with an interest in the subject will enjoy reading and learning about this portion of the fascinating story that is the Texas Revolution. A Fourth Edition of this book was released in September, 2018. It contains the results of new research documenting the origins of all of the cannons used in the Revolution. Some were originally used in the French fort at Natchitoches before 1763, others at Los Adaes since 1764. Six were recovered 1817 from a grounded ship belonging to Galveston privateers, and three from a shipwrecked Mexican brig in 1832.

Cannons of the Texas Revolution

This booklet, one of the Snippets of Texas History series by James Woodrick, documents the story of those individuals who first immigrated to Texas in the 1850's from Bohemia and Moravia, today's Czech Republic. The story is told in their own words from letters they wrote at the time, and by extensive research into Czech, German, Texas and English archives uncovering great detail about their journey. Much genealogical information about these pioneers is included, which will be of interest to their descendants today.

The First Czech Texans: Snippets of Texas History Series

Lost Texas Cannons

This book uses extensive, included information from primary sources to describe in detail the Battle of Gonzales, proves there were two cannons in that engagement, describes the fate of each, and tracks the movement of all Texian cannons in 1835. It also defines the precise location of the battle based on eye witness accounts, and describes an artifact found at the battle site that appears to have been fired from the famous "Come and Take It" cannon.

The Battle of Gonzales: and its two cannons

The Alamo Eighteen Pounder. Come and Take It. Phrases without context to outsiders, but not to Texans. These revered, iconic cannons played an outsized role in the creation of the Republic of Texas in 1835 and 1836. Many historians have spent countless hours researching the Alamo artillery to determine what was used in the battle, where they were deployed, and what happened to them after the battle. In some cases the archival record is reasonably clear; in others it is not. The origins of these cannons and their path through Texas history is revealed here for the first time, pieced together from a combination of archival records, accounts of participants, published books and articles, and studies and opinions of professional and avocational historians. The Alamo artillery remaining in San Antonio today has a fascinating history before its use in that fateful battle in 1836. Some of the cannons hark from the Spanish Colonial period, and were made in Mexico. Two of them go all the way back to the early days of the French fort at Natchitoches, Louisiana. And perhaps most interesting of all are the five cannons that were in the fleet of a Galveston pirate in 1817, wrecked in Matagorda Bay, recovered by Spanish troops and sent to San Antonio. Twenty-four cannons were present in the Alamo during the battle on March 6, 1836. Three were removed from San Antonio in May, 1836 by the departing Mexican army, were taken to Matamoros and are lost. Twenty-one of them were buried by Mexican forces before they departed; thirteen were later rediscovered by Sam Maverick in 1852, five by Maverick descendants in 1908 and three by others. Of these, thirteen remain and are on display in San Antonio today. This book reveals their fascinating history. A description of the artillery and its history used at Goliad, Gonzales and San Jacinto is also included.

The Alamo Artillery: Also Including Goliad, Gonzales and San Jacinto

Come and Take It. Twin Sisters. Travis' 18-pounder. Phrases without context to outsiders, but not to Texans. These revered, iconic cannons played an outsized role in the creation of the Republic of Texas in 1836. Before that, there were many other cannons involved in the tumultuous history of this state. Each of the countries of the Six Flags that flew over Texas brought artillery to the state. This article looks at the early history of cannons in Texas, from Spanish discovery to brief French occupation and then part of New Spain, and finally to the end of Texas as a state in the Republic of Mexico in 1836. The research presented in this book has revealed some interesting and heretofore unrecognized facts relative to Spanish / Mexican cannons from the Revolutionary period that are on display in San Antonio, Gonzales and Goliad today. For example, five were brought here by Americans and French privateers in 1817 who were participating in the insurgency to free Mexico from Spanish rule, and were abandoned in a grounded ship in Matagorda Bay. Spanish soldiers recovered the guns and sent them to San Antonio, where they remained in storage until used in the Siege of Bexar in 1835 and the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Five are in San Antonio today. At Goliad is a "Frankenstein" cannon made from three pieces of older cannons that had been stored at Los Adaes before 1763, taken to Bucareli in 1774 and abandoned there in 1779, and later retrieved and sent to La Bahia in 1795. And the small iron swivel gun that is in the Gonzales Memorial Museum not only fired the first shot in the Battle of Gonzales, but did the same thing in the Battle of Velasco three years earlier! The oldest known remaining Texas cannons were discovered in the remains of a Spanish ship that ran ashore on Padre Island in 1554. Ten cannons were brought here by LaSalle in 1685, nine are in Victoria and Austin. Others were brought by French troops to their fort at Natchitoches before 1763; one of these is in the Alamo today. Another in the Alamo today was used in the Battles of Rosillio, Alazan and Medina in 1813, the Siege of Bexar in 1835 and the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. Extensive primary source citations are included for those interested in further pursuing this fascinating history.

Texas Artillery Before 1835

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