Site of the Town of Linnville
Port Lavaca, Calhoun County, Texas
Marker Inscription
An early Texas port named for John Joseph Linn 1798-1885 A pioneer merchant of Victoria who located his warehouse here in 1831 Around this a settlement grew up which was destroyed by Comanche Indians on August 8, 1840 Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1831 pioneer Victoria merchant John Joseph Linn located a warehouse on this stretch of the Texas coast, and a small port settlement grew up around it. On August 8, 1840, a massive Comanche raiding party swept down to the Gulf and burned Linnville to the ground, part of the famous Great Raid of 1840. The town was never rebuilt, and the State of Texas marked the site in 1936.
Why it matters
Linnville's destruction marks the deepest point a Comanche raid ever reached toward the Texas coast, a turning point in the frontier wars between the Republic and the Comanche.
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Related people
- · John Joseph Linn
Related events
- · Great Comanche Raid of 1840
- · Destruction of Linnville (1840)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Port Lavaca
Port Lavaca, TX
Founded in 1840 after a Comanche raid wiped out nearby Linville, Lavaca—"the cow"—grew into the busiest port on Matagorda Bay and a hub for driving cattle to market. It traded the county seat back and forth with Indianola for decades, weathering Federal gunboat fire during the Civil War. As railroads reshaped Texas, the town turned from cattle to seafood, oil, and manufacturing, thriving as Port Lavaca into the modern era.
Ranger Cemetery
Port Lavaca, TX
The oldest grave here belongs to Major H. Oram Watts, the Linnville customs collector killed in the great Comanche raid on that coastal settlement in August 1840. The site took its name after the 1850 burial of Margaret Lytle, wife of James T. Lytle, remembered as the "poet" of the Texas Rangers; during a Civil War epidemic a nearby house served as a hospital, and at least ten Federal soldiers who died were buried here. Members of the five families who owned the land also rest in Ranger Cemetery.
Calhoun County Hurricanes
Port Lavaca, TX
Hurricanes have shaped Calhoun County's history as powerfully as any human event, their high winds, rains, and tidal surges repeatedly reordering life along Matagorda Bay. Entire towns vanished to 19th-century storms, including Indianola—a major Gulf seaport and the county seat—and the Republic-era port of Saluria on Matagorda Island. Alongside the loss of property and life run enduring stories of survival and rebuilding.
Clark Cemetery
Port Lavaca, TX
This burial ground served the Clark family of the vanished Chocolate community, named for nearby Chocolate Creek where Sylvanus Hatch and his brother Joseph settled in 1846. Residents raised cattle and horses, farmed, and worshipped at St. Paul's-on-the-Prairie, whose building also housed the school. In the mid-1850s John Clark arrived and built stock pens known as Clark's Station along the Indianola Railroad, letting area farmers ship crops and cattle to market; he deeded this cemetery in 1899.