John Prince Coles
Independence, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A native of North Carolina, John Prince Coles brought his family to Texas in 1821 with Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists. Arriving in present Washington County on New Year's Day in 1822, Coles received a Mexican land grant in 1824. He founded Coles Settlement, which was later renamed Independence. He was appointed alcalde of the municipality of Washington by the Mexican government in 1828. After service in the Republic of Texas Army in 1836, he held a number of public offices, including senator in the First Republic Congress, 1840-41.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Prince Coles, a North Carolinian, joined Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" and reached present Washington County on New Year's Day 1822, receiving a Mexican land grant in 1824. He founded Coles Settlement—later renamed Independence—and was appointed alcalde of the Washington municipality in 1828. After serving in the Republic of Texas Army in 1836, he sat as a senator in the First Congress.
Why it matters
Coles was among the earliest Anglo-American colonists whose settlements and offices laid the civic groundwork for Texas's passage from Mexican province to independent republic.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1820s, Texas was a thinly settled province at the northern edge of newly independent Mexico. To build up its population and create a buffer on the frontier, the government allowed empresarios to bring in settlers. Stephen F. Austin led the best known of these ventures, and his first group of colonist families became known as the "Old Three Hundred."
These colonists settled along the Brazos and Colorado river valleys. In return for Mexican land grants, they were expected to become Mexican citizens and to live under Mexican law. For a time the arrangement worked, and settlements took root across the rich river bottoms of what is now southeast-central Texas.
By the 1830s, relations between the colonists and the Mexican government had grown tense, and those tensions led to the Texas Revolution in 1836. The Brazos country where Coles settled was at the center of it all. The Texas Declaration of Independence was signed at nearby Washington-on-the-Brazos.
People & events
John Prince Coles came from North Carolina and brought his family to Texas in 1821 as one of Austin's Old Three Hundred. They reached what is now Washington County on New Year's Day 1822, beginning a new year and a new life on the frontier at the same time. In 1824 he received his Mexican land grant, which made his claim official.
Coles built more than a homestead. He founded a community known as Coles Settlement, which later took the name Independence. His neighbors and the authorities relied on him: in 1828 the Mexican government appointed him alcalde of the municipality of Washington. The office combined roles that Americans would recognize as mayor and local judge.
Coles's career spanned the whole shift from Mexican province to independent nation. He served in the Republic of Texas Army in 1836, the year of the revolution, and afterward held a number of public offices. Among them was a seat as senator in the Republic's First Congress in 1840–41, helping to govern the young country he had watched take shape.
Its place in the American story
The story of the Old Three Hundred is one of the founding chapters of Anglo-American Texas, and it belongs to the larger story of Americans moving west and across national borders. Many of the families who came under Austin's contracts started out as settlers in a foreign country, and before long they found themselves citizens of a new republic.
Coles's life follows that arc closely. He was a colonist under a Mexican grant, a Mexican-appointed local official, a soldier in the revolution, and a lawmaker of the Republic of Texas. Few careers illustrate so directly how frontier settlement turned into self-government and, eventually, into Texas's path toward joining the United States.
The town he founded kept growing in importance. Independence became home to the original campus of Baylor University in the 1840s, and it developed into one of the notable early communities of Texas.
If you visit
Independence today is a quiet spot in the rolling Brazos country, and much of the pleasure of a visit is its calm. It is hard to picture now that this was once an important frontier community, founded by a man who arrived with Austin's first colonists.
Look around for the town's other historic markers and older structures. Together they tell the story of a place that ran from Coles Settlement to a center of early Texas education and civic life.
Independence fits naturally into a drive through Washington County, especially paired with nearby Washington-on-the-Brazos, where Texas declared its independence. In spring the roadsides here are famous for wildflowers, which makes the back roads between these historic stops a trip in themselves.
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
- · John Prince Coles
- · Stephen F. Austin
Themes & tags
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