Old Quintana
Quintana, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for a Mexican general. Early as 1532 a thriving village. Port of entry in Republic of Texas. Strategic port in Civil War. Industrial area, cattle and cotton shipping point, 1870-1900. Fashionable summer colony, 1884 and afterwards. Largely destroyed in 1900 storm. Now a resort and fishing center. (1964)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Perched at the mouth of the Brazos River, Quintana passed through nearly every chapter of Texas history—an early village site, a port of entry under the Republic of Texas, and a strategic harbor during the Civil War. In the late 19th century it shipped cattle and cotton and blossomed into a fashionable summer colony, only to be largely swept away by the catastrophic 1900 hurricane. Today it endures as a quiet resort and fishing community.
Why it matters
Quintana's layered life as port, wartime harbor, and resort captures how a single stretch of Gulf coast could mirror the whole arc of Texas from republic to modern age.
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Related events
- · 1900 Galveston hurricane
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Titlum-Tatlum
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Quintana Cemetery
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Just beyond the storm levee lies one of the last traces of Quintana, a bustling seaport in the days of the Republic of Texas. The cemetery began as the family plot of Henry and Josephine Seaburn, who ran homebuilding and shipbuilding ventures here; their infant child's 1846 burial is its earliest known grave. Wind, water, and development erased many markers, and the last burial came in 1942.