Early Jackson County
Edna, Jackson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized, 1837; named for 7th president of U. S., Andrew Jackson. Early hunting grounds of the cannibalistic Karankawa Indians, this region was crossed in 1528 by shipwrecked Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca. French explorer La Salle founded the first settlement,iIl-fated Fort St. Louis, in 1685. Its site is said by some authorities to be Dimmitt's Point (21 miles SW.). Most of what is now Jackson County lay in Stephen F. Austin's land grant. The first town, "Santa Anna," was founded by six members of Austin's "Old 300" colonists in 1832. The town, later named "Texana," was the predecessor of Edna.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1837 and named for President Andrew Jackson, this region holds layers of early Texas history: it was homeland of the Karankawa people, crossed in 1528 by the shipwrecked Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca, and site of La Salle's ill-fated Fort St. Louis of 1685. Most of the county later fell within Stephen F. Austin's grant, where members of his "Old 300" founded the town of Santa Anna in 1832—renamed Texana and, in time, succeeded by Edna.
Why it matters
Few places compress so much of early Texas—Indigenous, Spanish, French, and Anglo-American—into a single county, marking the collision of empires and peoples on the Gulf frontier.
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Related people
- · Cabeza de Vaca
- · La Salle
- · Stephen F. Austin
- · Andrew Jackson
Related events
- · La Salle's Fort St. Louis (1685)
- · Founding of Santa Anna/Texana (1832)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jackson County
Edna, TX
This county history marker sketches the layered settlement of the Texas Gulf coast, from the Karankawa homeland through Mexican-era land grants issued to Stephen F. Austin and Martín de León. Colonists arriving in the 1820s and '30s organized the area as a municipality in 1835 and, a year later, a county named for President Andrew Jackson. Its roll of honored names runs from Texas Declaration signers to an Alamo martyr and San Jacinto veterans.
Victoria County
Victoria, TX
This stretch of the Guadalupe River country carries an unusually deep layer of Texas history, brushed by the wandering Cabeza de Vaca in the 1530s and by La Salle's ill-fated French venture in the 1680s. Spanish friars founded Mission Espíritu Santo here in 1720 to reach the Karankawa, and the stray longhorns from their herds seeded what became a legendary cattle economy. Martín de León's 1824 Mexican land grant planted the town of Victoria, whose militia later fought for Texas independence, and the county organized under the Republic in 1837.
Victoria
Victoria, TX
Martín de León founded Victoria in 1824 as the seat of his colony, a Mexican outpost meant to buffer settlement against Comanche country. Its residents rallied to the Texas War for Independence in 1836 and later to the Confederate cause during the Civil War. Through it all Victoria grew into a hub of trade, cattle, oil, and industry on the coastal plain.
Site of the Town of Linnville
Port Lavaca, TX
Around 1831 pioneer Victoria merchant John Joseph Linn located a warehouse on this stretch of the Texas coast, and a small port settlement grew up around it. On August 8, 1840, a massive Comanche raiding party swept down to the Gulf and burned Linnville to the ground, part of the famous Great Raid of 1840. The town was never rebuilt, and the State of Texas marked the site in 1936.