McCroskey-Stringfellow House
Brazoria, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A tanner, John McCroskey came to Texas with Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300". He built this home in compliance with the terms of his 1824 land grant. Later owners remodeled the structure. Oliver Jones, the owner in 1849-50, was chairman of a commission to design the flag and seal of the Republic of Texas. Robert J. Townes, a Brazoria County district judge and later state legislator, lived here 1850-52. The property became a sugar and cotton plantation during Asa Stratton's ownership. Nannie (Maddox) Stringfellow (d. 1971) purchased the property in 1945 and preserved the dwelling. (1980)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Tanner John McCroskey came to Texas among Stephen F. Austin's 'Old 300' colonists and built this home to satisfy his 1824 Mexican land grant. Its later owners read like a roll call of early Texas: Oliver Jones, who chaired the commission that designed the Republic's flag and seal; district judge and legislator Robert J. Townes; and Asa Stratton, under whom the land became a sugar and cotton plantation. Nannie Stringfellow preserved the dwelling after 1945.
Why it matters
Few houses connect so directly to the founding of Anglo Texas, from Austin's first colony through the symbols and institutions of the Republic.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John McCroskey
- · Oliver Jones
- · Robert J. Townes
- · Asa Stratton
- · Nannie Stringfellow
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ellerslie Plantation
Jones Creek, TX
John Greenville McNeel came to Texas in 1822 as part of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred," and near this site rose Ellerslie, one of the region's largest sugar plantations. Its 21-room brick mansion, immense sugar mill, hospital, and slave cabins were built with bricks made by enslaved people, whose forced labor powered the whole enterprise. After McNeel's 1876 death the property passed to relatives, and fire, storm, and time erased the buildings one by one, the last lost in 1983.
Old Oakland Plantation
Freeport vicinity, TX
Henry William Munson founded this plantation in 1828 on land bought from Stephen F. Austin himself, next door to Austin's own Peach Point. Munson was among the Texans who protested Mexican injustices at Anahuac and Velasco in 1832—early sparks of the coming revolution—before yellow fever cut his life short in the epidemic of 1833.
Masonic Oak
Brazoria, TX
Beneath this oak in March 1835, Texans organized Holland Lodge, the first Masonic lodge in what would become the state of Texas. The gathering came on the eve of revolution, as Anglo settlers in Stephen F. Austin's colony built the civic and fraternal institutions of a new society. The tree has been honored ever since as the birthplace of Texas Freemasonry.
Brazoria Townsite
Brazoria, TX
Founded in 1828 by John Austin, a friend of colonization leader Stephen F. Austin, Brazoria grew into a port, market, and social center for the young Anglo colony. Here Jane Long — widow of the filibuster Dr. John Long, who had tried in 1819 to wrest Texas from Spain — kept a tavern that anchored the town's public life. Burned during the Texas Revolution and rebuilt, Brazoria served as a county seat and business hub until 1897.