Fayetteville
Fayetteville, Fayette County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Stage station on the Old San Felipe Trail founded by James J. Ross, John Crier, James Cummins - members of Austin's first colony. Nearby resided William J. Russell, participant of the Battle of Velasco. Jerome B. Alexander, Fidelie S. Breeding, James Monroe Hill - veterans of San Jacinto. Andrew Crier, William Hill, Dr. William P. Smith of the San Jacinto Campaign. Asa Hill, Jeffery B. Hill, John C. C. Hill - members of the Mier Expedition.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Fayetteville links the everyday world of stagecoach travel and Austin's colonists to the pivotal battles that won Texas independence, gathering the Republic's soldiers and pioneers in one settlement.
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Related events
- · Battle of Velasco
- · Battle of San Jacinto
- · Mier Expedition
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.
Breeding Family Cemetery / First School in Fayette County
Fayetteville, TX
David and Sarah Breeding came from Kentucky in 1833 with their sons to settle here in Mexican Texas, and three of those sons—John, Napoleon, and Fidelio—fought in the Texian army, sharing in the victory at San Jacinto in 1836. On the family's land in 1834, a teacher named Rutland held what is remembered as the first school session in Fayette County, drawing children from settler families for miles around. The family cemetery opened with David Breeding's burial in 1843 and still holds him and his kin.
Mike Muckleroy
Frelsburg, TX
Tennessee-born Mike Muckleroy came to Texas in 1840 and, just two years later, joined the campaign that drove the Mexican general Adrian Woll's thousand troops out of San Antonio and back across the border. Settling in Colorado County on a Republic of Texas land grant, he farmed and built a two-story log house topped with a watchtower to guard against Indian raids. Beloved as "Uncle Mike," he served terms as county commissioner before his death in 1896 at nearly eighty-eight.
Asa Hill of Rutersville
Rutersville, TX
Asa Hill came to Texas in 1835 and served the young republic in 1836, riding ahead of the enemy to warn settlers in the army's path. In 1842 he and two sons joined the ill-fated Mier Expedition into Mexico, where Hill drew a white bean in Santa Anna's deadly lottery and escaped execution, though he languished in prison until 1843; his youngest son, John C.C., was famously adopted by Santa Anna himself. Hill settled at Rutersville, enrolling eight children in its pioneering college before his death in 1844.