Home of Dr. Asa Hoxey
Independence, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Home of Dr. Asa Hoxey 1800-1863. Built in 1833 * Headquarters of many famous people during the early days of Texas Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dr. Asa Hoxey built this home at Independence in 1833, when the settlement lay in Mexican Texas on the eve of revolution. As a physician and prominent figure, Hoxey hosted many of the leading men of the era, and his house became a gathering point during Texas's formative years. The state marked the site in 1936 as part of its centennial commemorations.
Why it matters
The home ties the daily life of an early Anglo settler to the wider drama of Texas's push from Mexican province to independent republic.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Dr. Asa Hoxey built this house in 1833, the rolling country of what is now Washington County lay inside the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Thousands of settlers from the United States had come in under Mexico's colonization laws. They were drawn by cheap, fertile land along the Brazos River and its creeks, and they were building farms, cabins and small towns in a place that was still far from any capital.
The early 1830s were uneasy years. Tension was growing between the Anglo-American colonists and the Mexican government over trade, immigration, slavery, local self-rule and the direction of national politics in Mexico City. Within a few years that friction turned into open revolt. The Texas Revolution of 1835–1836 was fought largely across the region around this settlement.
Independence sat close to the heart of it all. Only a short ride away, at Washington-on-the-Brazos, delegates declared Texas independent in March 1836. A house built here in 1833 therefore stood in the middle of the country where the Republic of Texas was born.
People & events
Asa Hoxey lived from 1800 to 1863, and his life ran alongside the whole arc of early Texas. He came as a young man to a Mexican province and died during the Civil War in a state of the Union's Confederacy. In between he saw Texas become a republic and then join the United States. In 1833 he built this home, and the house soon took on a life larger than one family's.
The marker says the home served as headquarters for many famous people in the early days of Texas. It is easy to picture why. On the frontier, a doctor was one of the most important people in a community: someone with learning, standing and a solid house in a land of rough cabins. Travelers, leaders and neighbors passing through the area would naturally gather at a place like this to talk, plan, rest and trade news.
The marker does not name the visitors, and it is wise not to guess at them. What it tells us is enough: this was a place where people came together while Texas was working out what it would become. A century later, in 1936, the State of Texas placed this marker as part of its centennial celebration of independence.
Its place in the American story
Texas's path from Mexican province to independent republic to American state is one of the great turning points of nineteenth-century North America. The Texas Revolution and the annexation of Texas in 1845 helped set off the U.S.–Mexican War. That war reshaped the map of the continent and sharpened the national quarrel over slavery's expansion.
That large story was made of small places like this one. Grand events at Washington-on-the-Brazos and elsewhere depended on a network of settlers, homes and gathering spots where people met, argued and organized. Dr. Hoxey's house is a reminder that frontier nation-building happened around kitchen tables and on front porches as much as in convention halls.
The 1936 marker is part of history too. Texas marked its centennial with a statewide wave of monuments and markers, and many of the plaques travelers see today date from that year. They show how Texans of the Depression era chose to remember their founding generation.
If you visit
Independence is a quiet, spread-out community in the green hill country of Washington County, and that stillness is part of its charm. Stand here and imagine the settlement as a busy frontier crossroads, with riders coming and going from Dr. Hoxey's door. The contrast between then and now helps the story come alive.
Look for the 1936 centennial marker itself, which is a small artifact of how Texas celebrated its past. Take a moment to picture the landscape as the early settlers saw it: open prairie, stands of timber, and the long work of turning raw land into farms.
This stop pairs naturally with a drive to nearby Washington-on-the-Brazos, the birthplace of the Texas declaration of independence. Independence is also well known as the original home of Baylor University, founded here in the 1840s. Together they make a rewarding day spent tracing the Republic of Texas back to its roots along back roads.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Dr. Asa Hoxey
Themes & tags
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