On This Site Stood the Only Home Owned in Texas by Stephen F. Austin

San Felipe, TX

Near this spot in the old capital of Anglo-American colonization stood a town hall built about 1830 that became a cradle of Texas self-government. Within its walls met the Conventions of 1832 and 1833 and the Consultation of 1835, and the provisional government operated here until Texas declared independence in March 1836. As the Mexican army advanced weeks later, the building and the town of San Felipe were burned to deny them to the enemy.

Brookshire, TX

Born in Tennessee in 1793, Captain Nathen Brookshire took part in the storming and capture of Bexar in December 1835, one of the opening victories of the Texas Revolution, and served as a captain in the Texas Army in 1836. The community of Brookshire later carried his name. He died in 1853.

Wallis, TX

Born in Kentucky in 1780, Martin Allen surveyed roads with his father before joining the ill-fated Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition to wrest Texas from Spanish rule in 1812–13 — a fight that cost the lives of his father and nephew at the Battle of Medina. In 1821 he came to Texas as one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists, among the first to settle along the Colorado River. Later established at Eight Mile Point, the Allens ran a "Public House" frequented by a young William B. Travis, and Martin, a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, was buried nearby.

Cat Spring, TX

Born in Kentucky in 1805, Elemelech Swearingen brought his family to Texas in 1831 and, when another applicant withdrew, became one of the very last additions to Stephen F. Austin's celebrated 'Old 300' colonists. He farmed near what became Millheim in Austin County, served as its first postmaster, and during the Texas Revolution fought as a second sergeant under Captain Amasa Turner before joining the ill-fated Mier Expedition. He and his wife Angelina raised nine children on the land where they are buried.