Columbia
West Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In September 1836 Columbia, now known as West Columbia, became capital of the Republic of Texas. This took place with the removal of the ad interim government here from Velasco. After the election called by ad interim President David G. Burnet, the first permanent government of the Republic went into operation here in Columbia in October. Inaugurated were President Sam Houston and Vice-President Mirabeau B. Lamar. Under their leadership the first duly elected Congress convened and the first Constitution of the Republic was ratified. Citizens of this vicinity served the Republic. Henry Smith of nearby Brazoria prior of this time has been the first Anglo-American governor of Texas, in the 1835-36 Revolutionary provisional government. In President Houston's cabinet he was secretary of the treasury. Stephen F. Austin, colonizer and Father of Texas, was secretary of state; under the heavy demands of that office, his health broke and he died here on December 27, 1836. In April 1837 at the wish of President Houston, the seat of government was moved to more adequate quarters in the city of Houston. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For a few pivotal months in the autumn of 1836, this quiet Brazoria County town was the beating heart of a new nation. Columbia became the capital of the Republic of Texas, where the first elected Congress convened, the first Constitution was ratified, and Sam Houston and Mirabeau B. Lamar took office as president and vice-president. It was here, too, that Stephen F. Austin—the exhausted Father of Texas—served briefly as secretary of state before his death that December.
Why it matters
Columbia witnessed the birth of self-government for the Republic of Texas, a decisive step in the westward march of the American frontier toward eventual statehood.
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Related people
- · Sam Houston
- · Mirabeau B. Lamar
- · Stephen F. Austin
- · David G. Burnet
- · Henry Smith
Related events
- · Capital of the Republic of Texas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Columbia United Methodist Church
West Columbia, TX
This congregation reaches back to the missionary energy of Texas's years as an independent republic, when in 1839 the Rev. Isaac L. G. Strickland was assigned to the Brazoria circuit and organized a Methodist church in Columbia, an early capital. As the town's fortunes shifted toward neighboring Marion, the congregation moved with them, and later fellowships in East and West Columbia merged by 1928. It has met in West Columbia ever since.
Old Columbia Cemetery
West Columbia, TX
This burial ground was given from the grant of Josiah H. Bell, among the first land deeded to one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists. It holds the graves of many who fought in the Texas Revolution of 1836. Deeded to a Presbyterian congregation in 1852, it has been tended since 1933 by a cemetery association.
Samuel Tubbs Angier, M.D.
West Columbia, TX
Born in Massachusetts in 1792, Samuel Tubbs took his grandmother's surname Angier and earned a Brown University medical degree before joining Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 colony in 1824. As one of the first American families to settle the Mexican province, he practiced medicine, served as a Freemason, and acted as an election judge for delegates to the 1836 convention that declared Texas independent. He also worked to establish public education in the young Republic of Texas.
George Rounds
West Columbia, TX
New Yorker George Rounds fought in Colonel James W. Fannin's regiment during the Texas War for Independence and survived the Goliad Massacre that claimed most of his comrades. Settling in Columbia, he ran a tavern and, shortly before his death, left his estate to educate poor and orphaned children. When oil and gas were found on his land in the 1930s, the fund's value soared, and his bequest still aids local students.