Andrew Edwards Gossett
Crockett, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(July 19, 1812 -- March 24, 1890) Donor of land for city of Crockett. After Houston County was created on June 8, 1837, from territory of Nacogdoches, a centrally-located county seat was provided by donation of this townsite by Gossett from his colonist's grant.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Andrew Edwards Gossett (1812–1890) donated the townsite that became Crockett, the seat of Houston County, which was carved from Nacogdoches territory in 1837. Giving land from his own colonist's grant, he provided the young Republic of Texas county a central place to conduct its government. His gift literally put the town on the map.
Why it matters
Land donors like Gossett founded the county seats that organized frontier Texas into governable communities during the Republic era.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Crockett Hotel
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This corner of Crockett has hosted commerce since 1837, when surveyor James H. Collard opened a general store here. The Collins family kept a store on the spot for decades until 1890, when the Pickwick Hotel rose in its place. Rechristened for frontier hero Davy Crockett in 1927, the hotel even housed county offices during a courthouse rebuild before fire finally destroyed it in 1972.
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Founded in 1837 and named for David Crockett, who had passed through on his way to the Alamo the year before, Crockett grew into a hub of the young Republic of Texas frontier. Its fortified log courthouse sheltered settlers during conflicts with Native peoples, and by the Civil War the town hosted a camp of instruction. As a telegraph and stagecoach station, it tied the surrounding farming and timber country into the wider South.
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In 1837 President Sam Houston authorized Houston County, the very first county created by the young Republic of Texas, and veterans of the Battle of San Jacinto named it for their commander and its seat for their Tennessee friend David Crockett. The first courthouse here was a log fortress against Indian raids, and a remarkable run of fire and misfortune destroyed courthouse after courthouse across the next century. Five successive buildings tell the story of a frontier county seat repeatedly rebuilding itself.
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