Fort Houston
Palestine, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A fort and stockade built about 1836 on the public square of the town of Houston (then in Houston County), as a protection against the Indians, by order of General Sam Houston, Commander-in-Chief of the Texan armies. The town was abandoned in 1846 for Palestine, the new seat of Anderson County, the fort about 1841. The site is now a part of the historic home of John H. Reagan, which is called Fort Houston.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1836, on the orders of Sam Houston himself, settlers raised a stockade fort on the public square of the frontier town of Houston, deep in what was then Houston County. The fort guarded pioneers on the edge of the young Republic of Texas until it was abandoned about 1841, and the town gave way to Palestine as the county seat a few years later. The old fort site was eventually absorbed into the home of Texas statesman John H. Reagan, who kept the name alive.
Why it matters
It marks the fragile early years of the Republic of Texas, when survival on the frontier depended on hastily built stockades and the fortunes of towns rose and fell with the shifting of a county seat.
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Related people
- · Sam Houston
- · John H. Reagan
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Houston
Palestine, TX
Raised in 1835–36 as a stockade and heavy-log blockhouse of the fledgling Republic of Texas, Fort Houston protected the settlers who founded the pioneer town of Houston. Friendly Indians came to trade at its walls even as wary families slept inside the twenty-five-foot-square blockhouse, and the men who gathered here formed one of the first Ranger units in Texas. The fort guarded a wide stretch of frontier until it was abandoned about 1841, its ground later folded into the home of statesman John H. Reagan.
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