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.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1820s, Texas was a far northern corner of newly independent Mexico, and its government wanted settlers. It allowed empresarios like Stephen F. Austin to bring in colonists, mostly from the United States. Austin's first colony, remembered as the "Old 300," settled along the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers, and the families received their land titles in the mid-1820s.
Those grants came with conditions. Colonists were expected to occupy and improve their land, which meant building homes, clearing fields, and putting down roots. A house like this one was more than shelter: it showed that the settler was meeting the terms of the grant.
Brazoria County sat in the middle of that early settlement. In the decades that followed, Texas went from Mexican province to independent republic in 1836 to American state in 1845. The rich bottomlands near the coast became plantation country, growing sugar and cotton. That wealth was built on the forced labor of enslaved people, and it is a hard truth behind the story of this house.
People & events
The story starts with John McCroskey, a tanner. Turning hides into leather was a valued skill on the frontier, where it supplied shoes, harness, and saddles. McCroskey came to Texas as one of Austin's Old 300, and he built this house to meet the terms of his 1824 land grant.
Later owners remodeled the house, and their names trace the history of early Texas. Oliver Jones, who owned it in 1849 and 1850, had chaired a commission to design the flag and seal of the Republic of Texas, the symbols of a new nation. Robert J. Townes, a Brazoria County district judge who later served as a state legislator, lived here from 1850 to 1852.
Under Asa Stratton the property became a sugar and cotton plantation, part of the farm economy that changed this coastal region. Much later, in 1945, Nannie (Maddox) Stringfellow bought the property. She preserved the house, and she lived until 1971. Thanks to her, a building linked to Texas's first colonists survived long enough to be marked in 1980.
Its place in the American story
The McCroskey-Stringfellow House links the local story to one of the most important stories in American westward expansion. The Anglo-American settlement of Mexican Texas led to the Texas Revolution, the Republic, annexation, and in time the war with Mexico that redrew the map of North America. Austin's Old 300 stand at the start of that story.
The house's later owners show the stages of that change. One owner helped give the Republic its flag and seal. Another served as a judge and legislator in the new state. Under a third, the land became a plantation, part of the cotton and sugar South that Texas joined.
That last stage reminds us that westward expansion and slavery were closely tied. Plantation farming on the Brazos bottomlands depended on enslaved workers, and arguments over slavery in new lands helped push the nation toward civil war. A house like this one lets you see the whole arc: settlement, nationhood, statehood, and the hard economy that grew up alongside them.
If you visit
Brazoria is in the heart of the old Austin colony, and the countryside still carries that history. As you look at the house, keep in mind that it has been remodeled over the years, as the inscription notes. What you see is the work of many owners layered over the home a tanner built to keep his land.
Picture the land as McCroskey found it: river bottoms, thick woods, and a handful of settler cabins spread across the countryside. Then picture the plantation years, with fields of cane and cotton worked by enslaved people. Both pictures are part of this place.
The marker fits naturally into a drive through Brazoria County, which is rich in sites tied to Austin's colony and the Texas Revolution. Taking in several of them on one trip gives you a vivid sense of how much of early Texas history happened within a short drive of the lower Brazos.
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 McCroskey
- · Oliver Jones
- · Robert J. Townes
- · Asa Stratton
- · Nannie Stringfellow
Themes & tags
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