HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Samuel Tubbs Angier, M.D.

West Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Samuel Tubbs, born in Pembroke, Massachusetts in 1792, took the surname of his paternal grandmother, Katurah Angier, in 1812. He received his medical degree from Brown University in 1823 and in 1824 came to Texas as a member of Austin's Old 300 colony. Prominent area doctor, Angier also was active in civic affairs, was a Freemason, and served as a judge for the election of local delegates to the 1836 Constitutional Convention. He also participated in efforts to establish a system of public education for the Republic of Texas. Angier died in West Columbia in 1867. (1997)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Born in Massachusetts in 1792, Samuel Tubbs took his grandmother's surname Angier and earned a Brown University medical degree before joining Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 colony in 1824. As one of the first American families to settle the Mexican province, he practiced medicine, served as a Freemason, and acted as an election judge for delegates to the 1836 convention that declared Texas independent. He also worked to establish public education in the young Republic of Texas.

Why it matters

His life links the earliest Anglo-American colonization of Texas to the founding institutions β€” medicine, self-government, and public schooling β€” of a new republic.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • Β· Samuel Tubbs Angier
  • Β· Stephen F. Austin

Related events

  • Β· Austin's Old 300 colony
  • Β· 1836 Constitutional Convention

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionEducationFrontier HistoryMemorial

Nearby & related markers

George Rounds

West Columbia, TX

New Yorker George Rounds fought in Colonel James W. Fannin's regiment during the Texas War for Independence and survived the Goliad Massacre that claimed most of his comrades. Settling in Columbia, he ran a tavern and, shortly before his death, left his estate to educate poor and orphaned children. When oil and gas were found on his land in the 1930s, the fund's value soared, and his bequest still aids local students.

St. John's Lodge No. 5, A. F. & A. M.

West Columbia, TX

St. John's Lodge No. 5 traces to an 1838 warrant from the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas, its first master installed by Anson Jones, the Republic's last president and grand master of Masons. After early meetings lapsed and its charter was revoked, the lodge was revived in 1848 and built a two-story hall in East Columbia in 1852, sharing space with a school and Sunday classes. The 1918 oil boom spurred a move to West Columbia and later homes for the still-active lodge.

Matagorda County

Bay City, TX

This corner of the Texas coast was home to the Karankawa people and the landing place of the French explorer La Salle in 1685. Colonists of Stephen F. Austin settled the area between 1822 and 1836, and the municipality of Matagorda organized under Mexican rule in 1834 before becoming Matagorda County in the new Republic of Texas. Erected by the state in 1936 for Texas's centennial, the marker honors early settlers, delegates to the conventions that declared independence, and Mary S. Wightman Helms, remembered as the first woman teacher in Texas.

Josiah H. Bell

West Columbia, TX

One of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, Josiah Hughes Bell was a South Carolina-born hatter who befriended Moses and Stephen Austin in Missouri and served in the militia during the War of 1812. Granted permission to settle Austin's colony in 1821, he served as alcalde, constable, and judge, at times handling Austin's duties during the empresario's travels to Mexico. Bell laid out two towns, developed a sugar plantation, built the area's first hotel, and completed a family home that Stephen F. Austin often used as an office until his death in 1838.