Governing the Town

Governing the Town. Lot 19. , In the Town's Early Years, Empresario Stephen F. Austin filled many roles. Administrator of land grants and court judge, Austin also coordinated with Mexican government officials. He managed the growing town, and as colonel of the militia, he was responsible for the colony's defense. Austin needed help., In 1827 he asked the state governor to form an ayuntamiento (council) and office of alcalde (mayor) for the settlement. Headquartered in San Felipe, the alcalde and ayuntamiento composed the colony's first representative government., The Alcalde of the Municipality of Austin served as mayor, court judge and liaison with served state officials. Despite the weighty role, the alcalde had no specific office and instead worked out of a series of rented buildings in town., Thomas M. Duke (1828) . Joseph White (1829) . Thomas Barnett (1830) . Francis W. Johnson (1831) . Horatio Chriesman (1832) . John Austin (1832) . Luke Lesassier (1833) . Robert M. Williamson (1834) . John H. Money (1835), Alcalde Y Ayuntamiento , Colonists cast their first vote for a local municipal government in 1828. Austin hoped the ayuntamiento and alcalde would lead the effort to build up San Felipe with a court, church, school and other government buildings. Meeting only occasionally - and often lacking Spanish-language speakers needed to communicate with Mexican officials - the council had uneven success. Many independently minded settlers also opposed taxes to fund ventures like government buildings., "The alcalde's office was in a large double log house standing back some distance from the main thoroughfare.... My impression is that it was designed for a hotel., The walls of hewn logs were roofed in and abandoned at that stage. It was here the ayuntamiento held its sittings, and this windowless, floorless pen, through the unchinked cracks of which the wild winds wandered and whistled at will, was presumably the Faneuil Hall of Texas." , Noah Smithwick, San Felipe resident, Captions , Upper Right: Announcements Issued by the Ayuntamiento prohibiting the "vice of gambling" and seeking the capture of escaped murderer Thomas Pryor , Lower Left (1): Above: Seal of the Juzgado, or Court of San Felipe , Lower Left (2): Left: Hide-Covered Document Chest belonging to Alcalde Thomas Barnett, Images Courtesy: Rugeley-Moore Collection, Austin County Clerk, Beinecke Rare Book and Manscript Library; Yale University; Fort Bend History Association, Richmond, Texas, Sponsor Plaque on top , This wayside is generosity underwritten by , The Meadows Foundation