Casa Consistatorial (Courthouse Square)
Liberty, Liberty County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally one of the five squares platted for public use in 1831 by J. Francisco Madero, General Land Commissioner appointed by the Mexican government to survey and grant long-awaited land titles to Texan colonists of the Atascosito area in accordance with the 1825 Law of Colonization. With Madero's agreement colonists were given rights of local self-government, including the location of the seat of government. By a narrow vote, Smith's Plantation (now Liberty) was chosen over Moss Bluff. From the first (1831) courthouse - a small hewn log building 22 feet square - Madero reported the results of elections of officers to the chief of the Department of Bexar. Documented congratulations were received from Mexican officials in Bejar, Nava, Villa de Rosa, and Abasolo. The town was renamed Villa de la Santísima Trinidad de la Libertad and became known as Liberty. Prominent Texans including Sam Houston practiced law in the Liberty courthouse. It has been the site of famous trials including a dual murder trial in which defendants were represented by David G. Burnet. Burnet's appeal of the verdict before the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos led to his election as the ad interim and first President of the Republic of Texas prior to Texas gaining its independence. (1968, 2017)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Mexico opened its Texas frontier to settlers, land commissioner J. Francisco Madero platted this square in 1831 as the public heart of a new town on the Atascosito lands. Colonists narrowly chose Smith's Plantation — soon renamed Liberty — over Moss Bluff, and from a 22-foot log courthouse they exercised a rare gift of local self-government. Sam Houston later argued cases here, and David G. Burnet's appeal of a verdict tried in Liberty carried him to the 1836 convention that made him the Republic of Texas's first president.
Why it matters
This courthouse square marks the moment Anglo and Tejano colonists began practicing self-rule on the Mexican frontier — a seedbed of the institutions that would define the coming Republic of Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J. Francisco Madero
- · Sam Houston
- · David G. Burnet
Related events
- · Convention of 1836
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Captain William M. Logan
Liberty, TX
Born in North Carolina in 1802, William M. Logan moved to Liberty in 1832 and, four years later, organized and commanded a company of Texas volunteers at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. He went on to serve as Liberty County's first sheriff before his death in Houston in 1839. His short life spanned the birth of the Republic of Texas.
Seven Courthouses of Liberty County
Liberty, TX
The town of Liberty has governed this corner of Texas across seven courthouses and two nations. The first, a building of hewn logs, went up in 1831 when Liberty was a municipality of Mexican Texas; independence in 1836 turned the municipality into a county. From frame structures of split cypress to brick halls lost to fire and condemnation, each courthouse rose and fell until the Cordova-limestone building of 1931, enlarged in 1957, finally endured.
Plaza Constitucional (Municipal Square)
Liberty, TX
When J. Francisco Madero platted the town of Liberty in 1831 under Mexican authority, he set aside five of the inner city's squares for public use, and this one has always held municipal buildings. That May, residents elected an ayuntamiento and their first alcalde, Hugh B. Johnston, only to have the young government dissolved the same year by Anahuac garrison commander Juan Davis Bradburn. City halls rose here in 1939 and 1959, continuing the square's civic role.
Plaza de Carcel, y Casas de Correccion
Liberty, TX
First mapped in 1831 under the laws of Coahuila and Texas, then the northernmost state of Mexico, this square was set aside as the site of a jail and houses of correction where prison sentences would be served through labor. By 1885 the town had grown around it, folding the old plaza into the mercantile district while jail functions moved elsewhere. The site preserves a trace of Mexican civic planning in what would become an American town.