Victoria County
Victoria, Victoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Center front: 1528 Cabeza de Vaca 1685 Cavelier de la Salle Under the Mexican Government Victoria was a district in 1832, a Municipality in 1835. Under the Republic of Texas Victoria County was created March 17, 1836 with Victoria as the county seat. Its territory has since been materially reduced through the creation of other counties. The principal industry of the people of the region during the 19th century was cattle raising. Here that industry had its origin in Texas, and Victoria County continues to the present day to be the leading cattle county of the state. 1836 1936 Erected jointly by the government of the United States and the State of Texas Left Front: Victoria County early home of the Karankawa Indians. Region roamed by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1534-1535, the first white man and companions to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Site of the first French settlement in Texas attempted by Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle and companions who built Fort St.Louis on Garcitas Creek in 1685. Devastated by the Karankawa Indians burned by members of the Alonso De Leon expedition in 1689. On its remains the Spaniards constructed Presidio de Nuestra Senora de Loreto de la Bahia Del Espiritu Santo. Right Front: As a protection for the Mission de Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga both established by Joseph De Azlor, Marquis of Aguayo and Father Fray Agustin Patron, O.F.M. in 1722. Both moved to Mission Valley on the Guadalupe River in 1726. Moved finally to Santa Dorotea now Goliad near the San Antonio River in 1749. The area embraced by this county settled by the colony of Martin De Leon, empresario, in 1824 who named the seat of his colony Guadalupe Victoria in honor of the president of Mexico hero of its struggle for Independence
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This monument traces Victoria County's deep past, from the wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca in the 1520s–30s and La Salle's ill-fated Fort St. Louis of 1685 to the Karankawa who ruled the coast and the Spanish presidio and mission that followed. It was here that Martín De León planted his 1824 colony, named for Mexican president Guadalupe Victoria, in a region that became the birthplace of the Texas cattle industry.
Why it matters
Few places compress so much of early Texas — Spanish, French, Native, and Mexican — into one county, which then gave rise to the cattle-raising that defined the state's economy.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Cabeza de Vaca
- · Rene Robert Cavelier de La Salle
- · Martin De Leon
Related events
- · Fort St. Louis
- · De Leon colony
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Victoria County
Victoria, TX
This stretch of the Guadalupe River country carries an unusually deep layer of Texas history, brushed by the wandering Cabeza de Vaca in the 1530s and by La Salle's ill-fated French venture in the 1680s. Spanish friars founded Mission Espíritu Santo here in 1720 to reach the Karankawa, and the stray longhorns from their herds seeded what became a legendary cattle economy. Martín de León's 1824 Mexican land grant planted the town of Victoria, whose militia later fought for Texas independence, and the county organized under the Republic in 1837.
James A. McFaddin Home
Victoria, TX
On the coastal prairies of Victoria County stands this 1890 Victorian home of Florida pine and cypress, built for James A. McFaddin (1840–1916), a stockman whose life spanned the Republic of Texas, Confederate service, and the great cattle era that followed. Moving from Refugio in 1876, he was among the ranchers who reshaped Texas grazing by bringing in barbed wire and hardy Brahma cattle, and even founded the town that bears his name. His "M6" brand, registered in 1840, remained active long after him.
Site of Round Top House
Victoria, TX
Built before 1836 by Placido Benavides, son-in-law of Victoria's founder Martín De León, the Round Top House was known as "the Citadel of Victoria." When Comanche raiders swept through the region in the great raid of 1840, the sturdy house became a place of refuge for the town's frightened citizens.
Lorenzo Dow Heaton Home
Victoria, TX
Lorenzo Dow Heaton came to Texas from New York as a boy, clerked in his brother's Port Lavaca drug store, and by 1870 had opened a Heaton Bros. pharmacy of his own in Victoria. He built this house facing the old Market Square in the late 1870s from hand-hewn lumber and square nails, expanding it with porches and fireplaces over two decades. Its Southern Colonial pillars and Georgian entrance make it one of the very few Victoria homes surviving from that era.