Site of Town of Old Velasco
Freeport, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of oldest Texas towns. Port of entry for over 25,000 settlers, 1821-1835. Scene of first armed conflict leading to Texas Revolution, 1832. In mid-1800s, resort place for wealthy plantation families. Declined after the Civil War and 1875 hurricane. This school is named for Velasco. (1969)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Long before Freeport rose nearby, the town of Velasco stood at the mouth of the Brazos River as one of the earliest gateways into Anglo Texas, funneling more than 25,000 settlers into Stephen F. Austin's colonies between 1821 and 1835. In 1832 it became the scene of an early armed clash between colonists and Mexican forces, an ember of the coming Texas Revolution. By the mid-1800s the same coastline had reinvented itself as a breezy resort for wealthy plantation families, before the Civil War and an 1875 hurricane hollowed the town out for good.
Why it matters
Velasco captures the whole arc of frontier Texas in one place — immigration, revolution, Gilded-Age leisure, and decline — a reminder of how quickly boomtowns rose and vanished along the Gulf.
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Related events
- · Texas Revolution
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Colonel Robert M. Coleman
Freeport, TX
Kentucky-born Robert M. Coleman came to Texas in time to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence and serve as aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. He went on to command the first regiment of Texas Rangers before drowning at the mouth of the Brazos River in 1837. This state memorial honors a founder of the Republic of Texas whose life was cut short in its earliest years.
Four Miles Southeast to the Original Town of Velasco
Freeport, TX
Four miles from this spot stood the original town of Velasco, one of early Texas's most consequential coastal sites. Here the schooner Lively landed the first immigrants to Stephen F. Austin's colony in 1821; here colonists and Mexican troops clashed in the 1832 Battle of Velasco, an early spark of Texan resistance; and here, in 1836, Presidents David G. Burnet and Santa Anna signed a peace treaty that Mexico never ratified. Few places hold so many turning points of the Texas Revolution in one stretch of shoreline.
The Lively
Surfside Beach, TX
This stretch of the Brazoria County coast witnessed three turning points in early Texas history. Here, according to the marker, the first ship of colonists bound for Stephen F. Austin's colony came ashore in December 1821; here the Battle of Velasco was fought in June 1832 in the growing friction between Texian settlers and Mexican authority; and here, in May 1836, peace treaties were signed with the captured General Santa Anna after the Texas Revolution. The Lively's landing opened a decade that would transform this shoreline into the doorstep of a new republic.
William Jarvis Cannan
Freeport, TX
Born in Edgefield, South Carolina in 1808, William Jarvis Cannan came to Texas in 1835 and joined the army in time to fight in the decisive victory at San Jacinto in April 1836. For his service he received headright and bounty lands across several Texas counties, and he raised eleven children by his two marriages before his death in 1881.