Colorado County, City of Columbus
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site of projected capitol of Stephen F. Austin's colony, 1823. First settlement at this point shown on Stephen F. Austin's map of 1835 as Montezuma. The municipality of Colorado was created by the provisional government of Texas January 11, 1836 and the town of Columbus ordered laid out as the seat of government. On March 17, 1836 the county of Colorado was created; in 1837, it was organized. Columbus, the county seat, was incorporated June 5, 1837. As railroad terminal, from 1869 to 1873, Columbus was an important trading center for a large territory to the west. In memory of: The pioneer families of Burnam, Gilleland, Cummins, Fisher DeWees, Kuykendall and Tumlinson. J. W. E. Wallace and his company who defended Gonzales October 2, 1835. William D. Lacey, Will Menefee signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Leander Beason, John P. Borden, David Cole, Stephen T. Foley, George W. Gardner, S. Joseph Garwood, Basil G. Ijams, Dr. James D. Jennings, Alfred Kelso, Amos D. Kenyon, Daniel Miller, James Nelson, Mitchell Putnam, Dempsey Pace, William Pace, Washington H. Secrest, Maxwell Steel, Robert Stevenson, Spencer B. Townsend, William Waters, Leroy Wilkinson; San Jacinto veterans who lived in this county prior to or after the Texas Revolution. Col. John C. Upton, Major John S. Shropshire, Major J. S. West, Capt. P. J. Oakes, Capt. James D. Roberdeau, Capt. R. V. Cook; Confederate officers. The following citizens of distinction have resided in Colorado County: Jones Rivers, jurist; Dr. Lawrence Washington, Gail Borden, Matthew Stanley Quay, Senator for Pennsylvania; Chas. Nagel, cabinet minister under Taft; Wells Thompson, Lieutenant Governor of Texas; George McCormick, State Attorney General and co-writer of the present State Constitution; Geo. W. Smith, member of Supreme Court of Texas.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Columbus's long roll of settlers, revolutionaries, and public figures makes it a microcosm of Texas history from Austin's first colony through the Republic, the Civil War, and the railroad age.
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Related people
- · Stephen F. Austin
- · Gail Borden
- · Matthew Stanley Quay
- · Charles Nagel
Related events
- · Texas Revolution
- · Defense of Gonzales
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fayetteville
Fayetteville, TX
Fayetteville began as a stage station on the Old San Felipe Trail, founded by members of Stephen F. Austin's first colony of settlers. The surrounding community became home to a remarkable roster of Texas Revolution figures—veterans of the Battle of Velasco, heroes of the San Jacinto campaign, and participants in the ill-fated Mier Expedition. Their presence made this quiet Fayette County town a gathering place of the Republic's founding generation.
The Rangers of Austin's Colony
Columbus, TX
By 1822 Stephen F. Austin had drawn some 150 families to his colony on the Colorado and Brazos rivers, where fear of Indian raids was constant. After the Mexican governor Trespalacios organized local defense, colonists in 1823 raised a small company under Moses Morrison, and Austin pledged ten more men at his own expense to serve as "Rangers." Though the Texas Rangers were not formally organized until 1835, these earliest ranging companies became the model for the force that followed.
City of Columbus
Columbus, TX
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.
Townsend-Koliba House
Columbus, TX
The front of this Columbus house dates to the mid-1800s, when it was owned by Stephen Townsend, a member of a prominent local family and a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto who, as the county's first sheriff in 1837, took part in a court held under a famous nearby oak. A later owner joined a second structure to the first in 1902 and added a porch, and since 1951 the home has belonged to former State Representative Homer Koliba and his wife Bernice, a Townsend descendant.