A native of Circleville Ohio, J.B. Pier came to Texas in 1835 with his wife Lucy (Merry). The Piers settled in this area near the site of the early Texas town of Travis. Pier served as a member of the Texas Army during the War for Independence. He . . . — — Map (db m202586) HM
People from Czechy began to come to America for liberty as early as 1633. First known Czech in Texas was Jiri Rybar (George Fisher), customs officer in Galveston in 1829. Others arrived individually for years before letters sent home by the Rev. . . . — — Map (db m165429) HM
A native of Hanover, Germany, Charles Welhausen immigrated to Texas with his parents, arriving at the Port of Galveston in 1843. They settled first at Cat Spring in Austin County, and later moved to High Hill in Fayette County, where Charles . . . — — Map (db m179273) HM
A part of the grant to
Stephen F. Austin in 1821
Created a municipality under the
Mexican government in 1828
Became a county of the
Republic of Texas, March 17, 1836
Named in honor of
Stephen Fuller Austin, 1793-1836
Pioneer . . . — — Map (db m125601) HM
German natives F.W. (Fritz) and Carolyn (Krampitz) Hackbarth arrived in Galveston in 1846 with their two sons. They settled in Austin County, where Fritz farmed and ranched, and the couple had four more children, including F.W. Hackbarth, Jr. . . . — — Map (db m162567) HM
South Carolina native Samuel K. Lewis married Marshall Ann Moore in 1830 and they settled on his Mississippi plantation. In 1838 the Lewis family was drawn to Texas. Originally a surveyor, Lewis served Austin County in the Republic of Texas House . . . — — Map (db m201996) HM
Austin County pioneer and Texas War for Independence veteran, Elemelech Swearingen, was born in Shepherdsville Kentucky (Bullitt Co.) in 1805. He married Angelina Weeks (1811-1883) in 1827 and in 1831, moved with his family to Texas. The Swearingens . . . — — Map (db m202526) HM
Kentucky natives William Henry Guyler (1823-1897) and Lydia Ann English (1826-1920) were married in 1845 and journeyed to Texas in 1859. They purchased a homestead on the Milburn and Davis Land Grant in Austin County. William Guyler erected a log . . . — — Map (db m168489) HM
Panel 1
The first German settlements in Texas were Industry in Austin County, founded by Friedrich Ernst in 1831, Biegel in Fayette County, founded by Joseph Biegel in 1832, Cat Spring in Austin County, founded by the von Roeder, Kleberg, . . . — — Map (db m210312) HM
In 1844, Georgia native William Graham Webb (1824-1902) immigrated to Texas and settled in La Grange. Soon after his arrival in Texas, Webb enlisted as a private during the U.S. - Mexico War, where he joined Jack Coffee Hays' Regiment of the Texas . . . — — Map (db m183175) HM
Virginia native Edwin Waller migrated to Texas from Missouri in 1831 as part of Stephen F. Austin's third colony. An active participant in the earliest stages of Texas' struggle for independence, Waller participated in the 1832 Battle of Velasco, . . . — — Map (db m145789) HM
One of great pioneer Methodist ministers of Texas. Pennsylvania - born. He began preaching at age 19. In 1833 he came to Texas and soon settled in this county. Unkempt in appearance, Kenney redeemed his eccentricity with an eloquent style of . . . — — Map (db m202581) HM
In January 1903, Frank Motl and J.F. Sefcik led Seaton men in forming an order of the SPJST (Slovanská podporující jednota státu Texas), a Czech benevolent society. Members of Hvězda Texasu, the Texas “Star” Lodge, met in Thomas . . . — — Map (db m290667) HM
In 1897, the S.P.J.S.T. Supreme Lodge formed in La Grange with 25 lodges. Lodge No. 1 in Fayetteville voted to purchase land and in Oct. 1910, construction of a hall and two ancillary buildings was complete. The vernacular style wood-frame dance . . . — — Map (db m183343) HM
Immigrants from northeastern Moravia (current Czech Republic) settled in the area presently known as Moravia, Texas. Moravia was founded by Jakub Hollub and his son-in-law Ignac (J.E.) Jalufka when they established a store in 1881. They named the . . . — — Map (db m164314) HM
Soon after Friedrich Ernst and Charles Fordtran came to the area at the western side of Stephen F. Austin's grant in 1831, now Austin County, the town of Industry became the first permanent German settlement in Texas. Following the Gotier Trace, . . . — — Map (db m176225) HM
The First National Bank of Bellville, chartered on February 25, 1890, is the oldest bank in Austin County, and one of four national banks in Texas still in existence that were chartered in 1890. The first officers were E. J. Marshall, President; C. . . . — — Map (db m125598) HM
German settlers Friedrich Ernst and Charles Fordtran founded Industry, Texas in 1831. The settlement was part of the Stephen F. Austin Colonial Land Grant and was the first permanent German settlement in Texas. Although cigar making dominated the . . . — — Map (db m176171) HM
Born a slave in North Carolina, Walter Moses Burton was brought to Texas about 1860. At the end of the Civil War, he purchased land from his former owner, Thomas B. Burton, from whom he had also learned to read and write. Walter Burton became a . . . — — Map (db m126527) HM
Built by Joseph Polley (1795-1869), one of "Old 300" settlers of Stephen F. Austin, and the first Austin colony sheriff. From Fort Bend and Austin counties, he at last settled here, where he had cattle herds called largest in Texas. In 1847-51 he . . . — — Map (db m211995) HM
Beginning in the 1920s local leaders looked for ways to commemorate this important colonial Texas history site. After 15 years planning and developing the property for its transition to the State in 1940, local supporters created a Friends . . . — — Map (db m201789) HM
Between 1821 and 1835, Austin shaped the course of colonial Texas. Here, he built his only home in Texas. His log cabin also served as the colony's land office, and became the center of San Felipe commerce.
Following a plan begun by his . . . — — Map (db m201785) HM
Austin County Historic School Site This was the location of: Wesley School 1863 - 1900 An early Austin County School, this plaque commemorating this historic site was made possible by citizens of Austin County under sponsorship of Austin . . . — — Map (db m165434) HM
Czech immigrants came to this area in 1859 and renamed it Wesley community. Professor Josef Masik tutored children in his home. The Bohemian Slovakian Reading Club of Wesley provided the first area school building about 1863. School was taught in . . . — — Map (db m165385) HM
In 1890, Phillipsburg residents formed the St. Paul Lutheran Church. Later that year, Henry Stern deeded eight acres of land for a church and school and one acre for a cemetery. The first burial is that of the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl . . . — — Map (db m202575) HM
Stocked With Goods From Cincinnati, Nicholas Clopper's store in San Felipe opened in 1826. Clopper faced the challenges of all merchants on the frontier. The town was "in a state of infancy" and home to only nine families of resident customers. . . . — — Map (db m206272) HM
Born in Austin County in 1876, John Hoskins Foster earned his degree from the University of Texas Medical School in Galveston. The Foster family moved to Houston between 1909 and 1910. Dr. Foster practiced medicine at several hospitals in Houston . . . — — Map (db m266754) HM
Johann Joachim Henrich Frederick (J. H.) Hintz (1841-1920), a native of Ziesendorf, Mecklenburg, Germany, immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1855. The Hintzes settled in the Millheim area, and Joachim joined the Cat Spring Agricultural . . . — — Map (db m157511) HM
A neighborhood on the east edge of town was home to a number of Tejanos, or native born Texans. The cluster of families was referred to as Spanish Town.
Some families had been driven from their homes during Mexico's war for independence . . . — — Map (db m206325) HM
William Barret Travis is remembered as a revolutionary patriot and martyr of the Alamo. Before he gave his life for Texas' independence, he was a young attorney in San Felipe who ran a law office located on lot 50.
Travis represented his . . . — — Map (db m206178) HM
Influential Austin County resident John Bell Lewis (1845-1920) was born on a plantation near Coffeeville, Alabama. His grandmother Betty Washington Lewis was George Washington's sister. Lewis grew up near present Winedale, Texas, and served the . . . — — Map (db m314134) HM
Founded by the Concord Christian Church in 1870, Concord Cemetery (also known as the Concord Church Cemetery) sits on 3.4 acres of land in northern Austin County and is part of the Concord Christian Church. The earliest known grave is that of Dr. . . . — — Map (db m202580) HM
Jan Zabcik Sr. (1810–1881), his wife, Anna Hruska (1825–1900), and daughters Johanna and Katerina traveled to Galveston, Texas from Moravia in 1856 along with Jan’s brother, Martin Zabcik, and sister, Anna Zabcik. Once in Texas, the Zabciks made . . . — — Map (db m290683) HM
Conrad L. Fuchs, born in Germany in 1834, came to Texas in 1845 with his parents, Pastor and Mrs. Adolf Fuchs, who settled in Austin County. The Fuchs family moved into this area of Burnet County in 1853. In 1861, Conrad Fuchs married Anna E. . . . — — Map (db m140237) HM
Born on February 22, 1820, in Bremen, Germany, F.W. Flato immigrated to Texas in 1846 and settled in Austin County. Flato and his wife, Sophia Welhausen, moved to southwestern Fayette County by 1866 where they operated a successful mercantile . . . — — Map (db m293041) HM
John Frey, born Johannes Frei in 1857 in Switzerland, came to America in 1877. He settled in Austin County, Texas, where he married German immigrant Mary Baethe in 1879. They eventually were the parents of fifteen children. They moved to . . . — — Map (db m157644) HM
In the mid-nineteenth century, Moravian immigrants began moving into central Texas, attracted by fertile soils and the hope for better lives. One who settled here was Pavel Machu (1834-1907), a native of the Vsetin Valley in what is now the Czech . . . — — Map (db m25469) HM
Calling their old jail "unsafe, unfit, and inadequate," the Austin County Court contracted in 1896 with Pauly Jail Building Co. of St. Louis to erect this structure at cost of $19,970. Romanesque Revival style, with crenelated parapets, bartizans, . . . — — Map (db m125600) HM
In the 19th century two organizations, the Bellville Social Club and the Bellville Turnverein Gut Heil, sponsored community-wide social activities. The Social Club purchased this property from Herman Miller in 1883 and planned construction of a . . . — — Map (db m117609) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m206275) HM
Austin County Historic School Site This was the location of: San Felipe School 1880 - 1952 An early Austin County School, this plaque commemorating this historic site was made possible by citizens of Austin County under sponsorship of . . . — — Map (db m165437) HM
German immigrant Adolph H. Preibisch and his wife, Emilie, came to Austin County in 1860. After the town of Sealy developed along the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, the Preibisches bought property in the new railroad town. In 1885, Adolph . . . — — Map (db m162569) HM
Born to Cyrus C. Campbell (1810-1883) and Rebecca Elizabeth Robbins (1818-1846), Cyrus Maxwell Campbell was raised near Travis (Austin County). At the age of 21, he enlisted in the Confederate Army at the beginning of the Civil War, serving in the . . . — — Map (db m207091) HM
A Georgia native who migrated to Austin County, Texas, in 1853, Jasper N. Daniel was elected to the State Legislature in 1859. During the Civil War (1861-65), he was a Captain in the Confederate Army. In 1884 Daniel moved with his family to Cotulla. . . . — — Map (db m202903) HM
Situated on land originally granted by the Mexican Government to Austin County pioneer John Nichols. This Vernacular Italianate commercial building was constructed in 1896 by E. Oscar Finn and John Thomas Colleton. E. O. Finn (1866-1945) a native . . . — — Map (db m157539) HM
Also known as the Protestant Cemetery, this burial ground has served the Wallis Community and surrounding area since the 1890s. The earliest settlers in the area were William and Lydia Ann (English) Guyler, Kentucky natives who arrived here in . . . — — Map (db m168496) HM
The first Lutheran worship services in this area were held at the home of early German settler J.E. Pietzsch, who had moved from Austin County. In 1880 a small school and church building was erected on land donated by John Bartlett, for whom the . . . — — Map (db m29038) HM
This log cabin erected at Industry, Austin Co. Texas in 1835 by Jacob Wolters. Moved to Wolters Park in Schulenburg, Texas, by the Wolters-Herder Family Ass'n. in August 1941. Dedicated on June 14, 1942 to the memory of past generations, to the . . . — — Map (db m163213) HM
In the 1820s, the first Anglo settlers came to Texas with Empresario Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" families. Though the first city, San Felipe de Austin, was established in nearby Austin County, many of the "Old 300" settled in Harris County, . . . — — Map (db m247386) HM
Rest Lawn Cemetery is one of the oldest graveyards in the historically African-American community of Acre(s) Homes, located about twelve miles northwest of downtown Houston. The community was developed by businessman Alfred A. Wright, beginning in . . . — — Map (db m170765) HM
Pioneer cotton breeders; aides to world fiber market, economy.
Clemens Von Roeder, born 1888 in Austin County, moved 1907 to Scurry County. As farmer began use of mutations, 1923, produced a long staple, big boll cotton; later added strains to . . . — — Map (db m110853) HM
Thin black lines indicate changes in relevance. Between each pair of lines entries are ordered geographically but all have the same relevance.
* Inflectional forms of words are their plurals, singulars, and possessives as well as gramatical tenses and similar variations.
