J. J. Josey General Store
San Felipe, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built by John Crutcher in 1847 of the Plaza de Commercio in San Felipe, this was the last store built in the town after its 1836 burning by military order. Purchased in 1867 by Dr. J. J. Josey, it was in continuous operation as a store until 1942. The building has been relocated a number of times. Josey, in 1880, moved the store one mile east to a new location on the Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railroad. In 1962 the structure was returned to its original site and restored for use as a museum. It was moved to the Stephen F. Austin State Park in 1969. (1962, 1987)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1847 by John Crutcher on San Felipe's Plaza de Commercio, this was the last store raised in the town after it was burned by military order in 1836 during the Texas Revolution. Dr. J. J. Josey bought it in 1867 and ran it as a store until 1942; the much-relocated building was eventually returned to its original site and moved to Stephen F. Austin State Park as a museum.
Why it matters
The store is a tangible link to San Felipe de Austin, the capital of Stephen F. Austin's colony and a birthplace of Anglo-American Texas, that outlasted the town's fiery destruction.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Crutcher
- · J. J. Josey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
James Tarrant Pattison Homesite
Pattison, TX
At the crossing of the Atascosito Road and the San Felipe Trail, James Tarrant Pattison and his wife Sarah settled a Republic of Texas land grant that grew into a 5,000-acre plantation with its own grist mill, sawmill, and cotton gin. The homesite doubled as a stagecoach stop, and the Pattisons founded the community's first church and school. The town that grew up here took the founder's name, and his heirs still live on the land.
William Henry and Lydia Ann English Guyler
Wallis, TX
Kentucky natives William and Lydia Guyler married in 1845 and made the journey to Austin County in 1859, where William built a log cabin, trading post, sawmill and cotton gin that served settlers for twenty miles around. He served the Confederacy while Lydia nursed the sick through the 1867 yellow fever epidemic and aided soldiers at home. When the Santa Fe railroad came in 1875–76, the Guylers sold land that became the town of Wallis.
Bellville
Bellville, TX
Brothers Thomas and James Bell arrived with Austin's colony in 1822, and by 1846 Thomas's land offer won Bellville the county seat over old San Felipe. Settlers from England, Germany and across the eastern states poured in, and after the hard Reconstruction years the Santa Fe railroad's 1880 arrival doubled the population. Cotton, and later a 1915 oil strike, kept the town thriving through the twentieth century.
Groce Family Plantations
Hempstead vicinity, TX
Jared E. Groce arrived in Texas in 1822 among the earliest Anglo settlers, his wagon train hauling elaborate plantation equipment into a raw frontier. He and his heirs built a string of cotton plantations with grand names — Bernardo, Groce's Retreat, Liendo — along with an early gin and ferry. On the eve of the Battle of San Jacinto the family fed and ferried Sam Houston's army, a direct contribution to Texas independence.