Goliad County
Goliad, Goliad County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First known to Spanish settlers as Nuestra Senora de Loreto, later called La Bahia del Espiritu Santo. Established as a mission in 1749. Became a strategic fort under Spanish, Mexican, Texas occupancy, 1810 - 1821, 1835 - 1836. Name changed to Goliad and created a Mexican municipality in 1829. Scene of massacre of Fannin and his command in 1836. Organized as a county, 1836, with town of Goliad as the county seat. Home of Confederate General Hamilton P. Bee. From population of 3,384 county sent several army companies to the Civil War.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
First known to Spanish settlers as a mission and presidio in 1749, this place — La Bahía del Espíritu Santo — became a strategic fort under Spanish, Mexican, and Texan control before its name was changed to Goliad in 1829. In 1836 it was the scene of the massacre of Fannin and his command, a rallying cry of the Texas Revolution. Organized as a county that same year, it later sent several companies to the Confederate army.
Why it matters
Goliad stands among the sacred ground of the Texas Revolution, where the massacre of surrendered soldiers turned tragedy into a battle cry for independence.
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Related people
- · James Fannin
- · Hamilton P. Bee
Related events
- · Goliad Massacre (1836)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Goliad
Goliad, TX
Goliad ranks among the three oldest municipalities in Texas, rooted in the Aranama Indian village the Spanish called Santa Dorotea and anchored by the Presidio La Bahía and Mission Espíritu Santo, established in 1749. Renamed Goliad in 1829—an anagram honoring the Mexican patriot Hidalgo—it became a crucible of the Texas Revolution. In March 1836, Colonel James Fannin and his men, taken prisoner after the Battle of Coleto, were marched from the La Bahía presidio and executed on Palm Sunday in the notorious Goliad Massacre.
Mission Nuestra Senora del Rosario
Goliad, TX
On the coastal plains of Spanish Texas in 1754, Franciscans established Mission Nuestra Señora del Rosario to bring Christianity and European agriculture to the Cujane people, one of several coastal groups the Spanish grouped under the Karankawa umbrella. Named by the nearby Presidio La Bahía's commander for his home parish in Spain, the mission at its height grazed some 30,000 head of cattle. But Indian lands and herds were eventually claimed by the crown, and by 1807 Rosario was abandoned and its acreage handed to Spanish settlers.
Site of Mission Nuestra Senora del Rosario
Goliad, TX
Founded in 1754 for the Cujane people, this Spanish mission was one of the outposts through which Franciscan friars sought to convert and reshape the Native nations of the Texas Gulf coast. For four decades, until 1794, the missionaries pursued that work before the mission was abandoned. Its site now lies within Goliad State Park, near the better-known presidio and mission of the region.
Lott Cemetery
Goliad, TX
Acquired in 1896 and soon renamed for a local African American family, Lott Cemetery holds the graves of trail drivers, cattle-industry workers, and everyday families whose modest wooden crosses and sculpted obelisks trace the ups and downs of the local economy. When the 1902 tornado destroyed a nearby Methodist church and neighborhood, several dozen victims were buried in a communal grave along its eastern edge. Among those resting here are more than thirty veterans, two centenarians, and a man known only as "Bingo," raised by a prominent cattleman's wife.