City of Columbus
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Oldest surveyed and platted Anglo-American town in Texas. About Christmas, 1821, Robert and Joseph Kuykendall and Daniel Gilleland settled at this place--in vicinity of old Indian campgrounds on Mexico-to-Sabine River Trail. Stephen F. Austin had noted advantages of this spot earlier. In 1823 he and the Baron de Bastrop surveyed land here. Although they relocated the capital, this site remained a hamlet with a grist mill, ferry, other improvements. Soon known as Beason's, community had as settlers, along with the first three men, many others of the "Old 300": Abram, John, Rawson, Thomas V., and William Alley; Benjamin Beason, Caleb R. Botick, David Bright, Robert Brotherton, James Cummins, W. B. DeWees, Thomas Kuykendall, James McNair, James Nelson, Gabriel Strawn Snyder; Elizabeth, James, and John Tumlinson; Nathaniel Whiting, and possibly others. In 1824, Milton Cook opened a tavern where many Texans stopped over the years. By 1835, village had been named. In Texas War for Independence, buildings here were burned by the Texas Army, to keep them out of the hands of Santa Anna. But after the victory at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, Columbus rose again. W. B. DeWees and J. W. E. Wallace platted the new townsite in 1837.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around Christmas 1821, the Kuykendall brothers and Daniel Gilleland settled at an old Indian campground on the Mexico-to-Sabine trail, at a spot Stephen F. Austin had already marked as promising. Austin and the Baron de Bastrop surveyed the land in 1823, making this the oldest surveyed and platted Anglo-American town in Texas, home to many of Austin's "Old 300" colonists. Burned by the retreating Texas Army in 1836 to deny it to Santa Anna, the town rose again after the victory at San Jacinto and was replatted in 1837.
Why it matters
Columbus stands at the very beginning of Anglo-American Texas, a founding settlement of Austin's colony whose survey lines and colonist rolls helped set the pattern for the state's growth.
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Related people
- · Stephen F. Austin
- · Baron de Bastrop
- · Robert Kuykendall
- · Joseph Kuykendall
- · Benjamin Beason
Related events
- · Austin's Old 300 colony
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Colorado County, City of Columbus
Columbus, TX
Columbus traces its roots to 1823, when Stephen F. Austin eyed the site — shown on his 1835 map as Montezuma — for his colony's capital. The provisional government created the municipality of Colorado in January 1836 and ordered the town laid out as its seat; that spring the county was born and the town soon incorporated. As a railroad terminal from 1869 to 1873 it thrived as a trading hub, and its marker honors generations of pioneers, defenders of Gonzales, San Jacinto veterans, Confederate officers, and citizens of distinction who called the county home.
Glidden
Glidden, TX
Before the rails arrived, this stretch of Colorado County launched cattle drives north to distant markets, and early settlers ranched, contracted, and built the mercantile houses that would last a century. The railroad changed everything: in 1882 T. J. Oakes sold land to the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio, which raised a depot, roundhouse, and turntable, and the townsite—named for railroad engineer F. G. Glidden—was platted in 1885. Scotch-Irish and English rail workers poured in, and Glidden grew into a busy rail center.
Alleyton
Alleyton, TX
Alleyton was once the oldest permanent settlement and largest town in Colorado County, founded by the Alley brothers—William, John, Rawson, Thomas, and Abraham—all members of Stephen F. Austin's original 300 colonists. Its prominence grew when it became the terminus of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad from 1860 to 1867.
Old Osage
Weimar, TX
This quiet park in Weimar marks a spot that helped decide the Texas Revolution. Jesse Burnam opened a trading post here in 1820, and his ferry across the Colorado River sped Sam Houston's army toward San Jacinto in 1836 — after which Houston burned the crossing to slow Santa Anna's pursuit. The town that later rose here took its name from the Osage orange trees nearby, and in 1861 it became a Confederate recruiting center that raised most of Company A, 5th Texas Cavalry.