Freeport, Texas

Everything Freeport is known for

4 songs mention this city

RoadyGoat plays music like this when you drive through Freeport. It's free on iPhone, and full songs play through Apple Music.

Music in Freeport

Songs About Freeport

Gulf Prairie Blues

Wesley Hanna

85%

Red Beams and Rice

South Park Mexican

50%

"Peace to Filero representng Freeport"

Port Artur

McKay Brothers

35%

"Aransas Pass to Matagorda, Freeport to Galveston"

the ballad of lavern and captain flint

guy clark

10%

Artists From Freeport

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Freeport

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Freeport.

Brazos River 43 songs FM 3005 2 songs Interstate 45 8 songs Texas Colorado River 6 songs

History of Freeport

The Town a Sulphur Company Built RoadyGoat

Freeport is one of the few American towns that takes its name not from a founder or a feature, but from a corporation. In 1912 New York bankers Eric P. and Swen A. Swenson, both Texas-born, organized the Freeport Sulphur Company to work an enormous sulfur deposit at Bryan Mound, a low salt dome about two and a half miles south of here on the Gulf shore. To house the workers and ship the product, an affiliate laid out a brand-new townsite at the mouth of the Brazos River and formally dedicated Freeport in November 1912, the same year the first sulfur came up out of the ground. The town grew fast around the works: the weekly Freeport Facts started in 1912 when only about 300 people lived here, and by 1914 there was a hotel, a bank, a church, a one-room school, and a fish and oyster plant. Freeport incorporated on February 10, 1917. The mine at Bryan Mound ran until 1935, by which time it had produced roughly five million tons of sulfur. The company moved on, but its name stuck to the town for good. (Source: Handbook of Texas.)

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The Engineers Who Gave a River Two Mouths RoadyGoat

For all its size, the Brazos River was a terrible neighbor to a port town. Its mouth between Surfside and Quintana was choked by a shifting sandbar that ran as shallow as four feet, and every flood dumped fresh silt over any channel improvements engineers managed to dig. So in 1929 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did something drastic: they built a dam across the lower Brazos and cut the river an entirely new outlet to the Gulf, a few miles west of the old one. The river has emptied there ever since. The abandoned final stretch of the original Brazos, no longer carrying the silt-heavy current, was dredged and walled off into the calm, deep channel that became Freeport Harbor and Port Freeport. The side effect is a geographic oddity that hydrologists still point to: the Brazos ended up with two mouths, a setup unique among Texas rivers, an old one feeding a working harbor and a new one, a short distance away, carrying the actual river to the sea. (Source: Brazos River Authority; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.)

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When Dow Came to Drink the Gulf RoadyGoat

The sulfur boom had already faded when the company that truly remade Freeport showed up. In 1939 Dow Chemical began building on the marsh and beach southeast of town, drawn by an unglamorous resource almost nobody else wanted: seawater. The Gulf is loaded with dissolved magnesium and bromine, and Dow's Texas Division was designed to pull those elements straight out of the ocean on an industrial scale. World War II turned the gamble into a juggernaut, as magnesium for aircraft and bromine for aviation fuel became strategic war materials. The plant kept expanding for decades and anchored the cluster of towns that branded itself Brazosport by 1944. Today the Freeport complex is the largest integrated chemical manufacturing site in the United States and remains the area's dominant employer, a sprawl of pipe, tank, and flare that runs right up to the water it was built to process. The town that a sulfur company founded was, in the end, kept alive by a chemical company that learned to mine the sea. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Britannica.)

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Velasco

1832

Here was fought a battle-- the first collision in arms between Texas colonists and the Mexican military-- a conflict preliminary to the Texas War for Independence. On June 26, 1832, when Texans under John Austin and Henry Smith came down river with cannon for use against Mexican forces at Anahuac, they ran against the resistance of Lt. Col. Domingo de Ugartechea. As commander of Mexican forces at Velasco, Ugartechea refused passage through the mouth of the Brazos River to the vessel bearing the cannon to Anahuac. Some 112 Texans attacked the port at midnight, and after 9 hours under the fire of Texas rifles and cannon, the Mexican garrison was forced to surrender. The Battle of Velasco, brought on by a customs quarrel at Anahuac, was unknowingly fought after the dispute at Anahuac had been peaceably settled. After the victory at San Jacinto 4 years later, President David G. Burnet moved the capital of the Republic of Texas temporarily to Velasco. Here the Treaty of Velasco, ending hostilities between Texas and Mexico, was signed on May 14, 1836. (1965)

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Goode, James Douglas [Jim]

1977

James Douglas “Jim” Goode, restaurateur, was born in Freeport, Texas, on the April 15, 1944. He was the youngest child of John Stuckey Goode (born in Yoakum, Texas) and Emma (Longoria) Goode of Tampico, Mexico. At age sixteen he quit school and left Texas for California to enlist in the United States Navy. He served during the Vietnam War. He became a Seabee and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After his service, he attended Milton Glaser School of Visual Arts in New York City. When he finished school, he went to Houston and started a career as a commercial graphic artist, but Goode eventually grew tired of that work and decided to start looking for other business opportunities. Always having enjoyed cooking barbecue for his commercial graphics clients, he thought about opening a barbecue restaurant of his own. In 1977, while eating at a local restaurant called the Barbecue Barn, he noticed the lack of professionalism among the employees. The owner approached Goode and asked him what he was doing. Goode responded that he was thinking about opening his own barbecue eatery. The owner commented that she hated the barbecue business and could not wait to leave it, but her husband had left it to her when he died. Goode casually inquired how much she would want for the place. She replied with, “How much you got?” He told her that he had $3,000 available and another $3,000 after he was paid for a graphics design job. She agreed to sell, and Goode returned the following day with the $3,000 and a promise to send her a check with the other $3,000. His purchase marked the beginning of Goode Company Restaurants. Working with his uncle Joe Dixie, the two slept at the restaurant in order to tend the fire and meat around the clock. The business was a big success. Goode crafted a unique Gulf Coast style flavor that became famous in the region. While other restaurants and cooks tried to outcompete each other on style, Goode stayed with what he thought was best—a classic down-home menu. In 1983 he opened Goode Co. Hamburgers & Taqueria followed by Goode Co. Seafood in 1986. He expanded to two more Goode Co. Texas Bar-B-Q establishments, and Goode's Armadillo Palace, a music venue, opened by the mid-2000s. By that time the company also sold goods online. Goode retired in 2005, and his son, Levi took over the family business. Jim Goode was a member of the Tejas Vaqueros-No Nombres Camp, a lifetime member of Coastal Conservation Association, and a lifetime director of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. October 7, 2012, was recognized as “Jim Goode Day” in Houston. That same year he won the Houston Legend Award of the Houston Culinary Awards. Goode married three times. On August 10, 1968, he married Elizabeth Ann Diguardi; they had a son, Levi, and a daughter, Jana. After his divorce in 1980, Goode married Kathleen N. McSpadden on August 17, 1980; they had two daughters—Emma and Kathleen. Goode divorced in 2003 and married Maria Cristina Zubillaga on November 5, 2004. He died at the age of seventy-one of Alzheimer’s at his house in Houston on February 2, 2016, and was survived by his wife, Maria Cristina, and children.

Tsha Handbook →

The Treaties of Velasco — Where Texas Independence Was (Almost) Settled

1836

On May 14, 1836, Texas Interim President David Burnet and captured Mexican General Santa Anna signed two treaties in Velasco, TX — one public, one secret — ending hostilities and promising Texas recognition. Mexico immediately voided both as acts of a captive. The resulting border dispute (Rio Grande vs Nueces) drove six years of raids, the Battle of Mier, and ultimately the Mexican-American War, finally resolved by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.

Historical Account →

Colonel Robert M. Coleman

1836

Erected by the State of Texas In Memory of Colonel Robert M. Coleman Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at San Jacinto Colonel of the first regiment of Texas Rangers Born in Kentucky in 1799 Drowned at the mouth of the Brazos in July 1837

Historical Marker →

Duval, Burr H.

1836

Burr H. Duval, commander of the Kentucky Mustangs under James W. Fannin, Jr. , at Goliad, was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1809, the son of Nancy (Hynes) and William Pope Duval . He was educated at St. Joseph's College in Bardstown, Kentucky, and was one of three brothers who aided the Texas struggle for independence from Mexico. He was elected captain of the company of Kentucky Riflemen that formed at Bardstown in November 1835. The group, which included Duval's brother, John Crittenden Duval , marched to Louisville, traveled by steamer to New Orleans, and on December 28, 1835, landed at Quintana, Texas, Velasco's rival town at the mouth of the Brazos River. The company reported to the provisional government two days later, when Duval requested that they be mustered as mounted rangers. The men served briefly, as John C. Duval recorded, as "a kind of marine corps" aboard the Texan vessel Invincible while it searched in vain for the Mexican privateer Bravo before returning to Quintana. About the middle of January 1836 the company sailed to Copano, then a principal Texas port on Aransas Bay, and marched to Refugio and then to Goliad, where the men became part of Fannin's Provisional Regiment of Volunteers. Fannin merged Duval's Kentucky Riflemen with Benjamin L. Lawrence's Tennessee volunteers and put Duval in command of the new company called the Kentucky Mustangs. This unit, along with Ira Westover 's regulars, David N. Burke's Mobile Grays , Samuel Overton Pettus 's San Antonio Greys, Benjamin F. Bradford's Alabama Greys, Amon B. King 's Kentucky Volunteers, and Jack Shackelford 's Red Rovers , formed the LaFayette Battalion, commanded by Benjamin C. Wallace . In a letter to his father dated March 9, 1836, Duval wrote that, unlike himself, Fannin "is unpopular" and that only "the certainty of hard fighting, and that shortly , could have kept us together so long." He also wrote of his comrades that "no man ever thinks of retreat, or surrender, they must be exterminated to be whipped." During Fannin's attempted withdrawal from Goliad to Victoria on March 19 Duval joined Shackelford and Westover in protesting their commander's decision to rest the men and oxen on the open prairie before reaching the safety of the trees along Coleto Creek. In the ensuing battle of Coleto Duval's Mustangs were deployed along the rear of Fannin's square, which engaged the Mexican cavalry in close and bitter fighting. Duval was among the many wounded, but the square remained unbroken. After Fannin surrendered to José de Urrea , Duval was murdered with the rest of Fannin's command in the Goliad Massacre , on March 27, 1836. His heirs received 3,840 acres of Texas land for his service and sacrifice. Duval County, established in 1858, was named for Burr H., John C., and Thomas H. Duval .

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McKinney, Thomas Freeman

1835

Thomas Freeman McKinney, trader and stock raiser, was born on November 1, 1801, in Lincoln County, Kentucky, the fourth of eleven children of Abraham and Eleanor (Prather) McKinney. Two of his brothers, Charles Chastain and James Prather, and a sister, Euphemia McKinney Austin, joined him in Travis County in the 1850s. He received a common-school education in Christian County, Kentucky, where the family lived from 1811 to 1818. By 1822 the McKinneys and their kin, the McLeans and Subletts, moved first to southern Illinois and then Randolph County, Missouri, where the men engaged in farming, hunting, and the fur trade. McKinney went to Santa Fe in 1823 and then Chihuahua, Durango, Saltillo, and Bexar. In 1824 he received a league on the Brazos River from Stephen F. Austin , but a trip to Ayish Bayou, where his uncle Stephen Prather had a trading post, convinced him that the Nacogdoches area was best for trade. He married Nancy Watts in 1827 and kept a store on the square in Nacogdoches until 1830. He made one trip to New Orleans and returned by keelboat up the Neches and Angelina rivers, but mainly he took cotton and piece goods to Saltillo and traded them for livestock and specie. In 1830 he moved to San Felipe and continued trading to the south, sometimes in partnership with the sons of Jared E. Groce . He also maintained an interest on the lower Trinity, where Michel B. Menard developed a sawmill. In 1834 he became senior partner with Samuel May Williams in McKinney and Williams, a firm located on the Brazos; Williams supplied the bookkeeping and commercial contacts in the United States, while Mckinney collected and shipped the cotton. The firm developed Quintana at the mouth of the river in 1835 and used its credit to help finance the Texas Revolution to the amount of $99,000, which was never repaid in full. Always impetuous and ready for a fight, McKinney, on board his schooner, San Felipe , captured the Correo de Mexico in September 1835. The Mexican vessel had been preying on Texas-bound shipping. McKinney obtained a privateering licence from the Provisional Government and used the firm's credit to buy the William Robbins , renamed Liberty , for the rebel government. Though he refused commissions as commissary general and loan agent, he continued to forward men and supplies to the Texas army. He and Williams joined Menard in 1833 in a scheme to claim Galveston Island, and in 1836 they combined with others to secure a charter for the Galveston City Company. The firm had a wharf and warehouse on the island in October 1837, when Racer's Hurricane struck and severely damaged their property. McKinney built a house for Williams and an identical one for himself west of town in 1839, but he lived in his home only briefly before his marriage ended. In 1843 he secured a divorce and the same year married Anna Gibbs, a native of Boston. There were no children from either union. McKinney withdrew from the partnership with Williams in 1842 and devoted himself to trading and stock raising, first on the island, where he had a race course, and in 1850 in Travis County, where he constructed a fine stone house, a gristmill, and another quarter horse track opposite the capital city. He also served as state senator from Galveston in 1846 and as representative in 1849. He was a member of the Democratic party and a Unionist in 1860–61. He had opposed independence, annexation , and secession , but once each was accomplished, he worked to support the government. He served the Confederacy as a special cotton agent and made several trips to Mexico with cotton, but the duplicity of various individuals and the confusion of the times left him liable for contracted debts. This burden, along with the loss of about fourteen slaves, crippled him financially. His once-large estate was reduced to $5,000. He died on October 2, 1873, after a long struggle with a kidney disease, and was survived by his wife. His ranch became McKinney Falls State Park in 1976.

Tsha Handbook →

Things to Do in Freeport

nature 9.7 mi away

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

More than 40,000 acres of coastal marsh and prairie on the Central Flyway — one of the top birding spots in the U.S., with 320+ recorded species. Drive the…

Everything Near Freeport

294 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Goode, James Douglas [Jim] · Tsha Handbook
James Douglas “Jim” Goode, restaurateur, was born in Freeport, Texas, on the April 15, 1944. He was the youngest child of John Stuckey Goode (born in Yoakum, Texas) and Emma (Longoria) Goode of Tampico, Mexico. At age…
Bryan Mound · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Freeport, Texas, and right here is Bryan Mound. In the early 1900s, a young engineer named Bernard Baruch discovered a massive salt dome right on the coast, loaded with sulfur. He tried to get J.P.…
Jones, Charles Adam · Tsha Handbook
You're driving past Freeport, a town that owes its existence to Charles Adam Jones. After a career in newspapers and packing plants, Jones came to this spot in 1913. He was tasked with building a new town and a massive…
Magnesium Industry · Tsha Handbook
Right here in Texas, you're driving through a state that became a powerhouse in the magnesium industry, especially during World War II. Starting in 1941, the Dow Chemical plant at Freeport began pulling magnesium…
Brazosport, TX · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazosport, a massive industrial and port area where the Brazos River meets the Gulf. While nautical charts as far back as the 1700s may have used the name, this community really took off after…
Freeport, TX (Brazoria County) · Tsha Handbook
You're driving along the Texas coast, heading towards the Gulf. Right here is Freeport, a deepwater port officially founded in November of <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1912</say-as>. It sprang up around the…
Stringfellow, Nannie Maddox · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here, you're passing through the territory of Nannie Maddox Stringfellow, a woman who built an empire from scratch. After a devastating hurricane ruined her father's…
The Treaties of Velasco — Where Texas Independence Was (Almost) Settled · 0.5 mi · Historical Account
On May 14, 1836, Texas Interim President David Burnet and captured Mexican General Santa Anna signed two treaties in Velasco, TX — one public, one secret — ending hostilities and promising Texas recognition. Mexico…
The Town a Sulphur Company Built · 0.7 mi
Freeport is one of the few American towns that takes its name not from a founder or a feature, but from a corporation. In 1912 New York bankers Eric P. and Swen A. Swenson, both Texas-born, organized the Freeport…
The Engineers Who Gave a River Two Mouths · 0.7 mi
For all its size, the Brazos River was a terrible neighbor to a port town. Its mouth between Surfside and Quintana was choked by a shifting sandbar that ran as shallow as four feet, and every flood dumped fresh silt…
When Dow Came to Drink the Gulf · 0.7 mi
The sulfur boom had already faded when the company that truly remade Freeport showed up. In 1939 Dow Chemical began building on the marsh and beach southeast of town, drawn by an unglamorous resource almost nobody else…
The Phantom Fiddler at the River's Mouth · 0.7 mi
Southwest of Freeport, where the San Bernard River slips quietly into the Gulf in southern Brazoria County, locals tell one of the coast's older ghost stories. As the legend goes, back in the 1820s a pair of fishermen…

Show all 200 nearby places

The Compact Killer of August 1932 · 0.7 mi
Freeport sits low and exposed where the Brazos meets the Gulf, and on August 14, 1932, the ocean reminded the young town exactly what that means. A small but ferociously intense hurricane had spun up in the Gulf only…
The Whole Story Under One Roof Downtown · 0.7 mi
If you want to make sense of how a sulfur town, a chemical giant, an old Texas-independence port, and a shrimp fleet all ended up sharing one small city, the Freeport Historical Museum and Visitor Center is the place to…
Gulf Shrimp on the Bank of the Brazos · 0.7 mi
For a town this tied to the water, the right place to eat is one that actually sits on it. On The River opened in 1988 at 919 West 2nd Street, perched right on the bank of the Brazos River just minutes from where it…
Freeport National bank · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Freeport, a city built on sulfur and vision. Back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1912</say-as>, the Freeport Sulphur Company incorporated, aiming to create a bustling port. They founded…
Schuster Home · 0.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Schuster Home in Freeport, a place that's stood for over a century! Built in 1917 by George Schuster's sons, this two-story cypress wood house was a real showstopper for its time. Notice those…
Freeport Ate One of the Oldest Towns in Texas · 1.3 mi
Drive the east side of Freeport and you are inside what was once Velasco, a place far older and once far more important than the town that absorbed it. Mexico set up a customs port at Velasco in 1831, and more than…
The Cornerback the Exporters Sent to the NFL · 1.4 mi
At Brazosport High School on West 2nd Street, the teams play as the Exporters, a nickname only a port-and-chemical town would pick, and one of the best athletes ever to wear it was Raymond Waddy Jr. Born in Freeport in…
R. O'Hara Lanier School · 1.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past R. O'Hara Lanier School. In 1947, the various African American communities of the recently organized Brazosport Independent School District were consolidated. At Velasco, children from Freeport,…
Velasco Methodist Church · 1.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brazoria County, and just ahead is the site of the Velasco Methodist Church. Methodist circuit riders were holding services here way back in the 1830s. After the original town of Velasco was wiped…
Velasco · 1.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Velasco, one of the oldest towns in Texas. Imagine this place back in the early 1800s: a busy port of entry, welcoming over 25,000 settlers. But Velasco is also famous for something else: the very…
Colonel Robert M. Coleman · 1.7 mi · Historical Marker
Erected by the State of Texas In Memory of Colonel Robert M. Coleman Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at San Jacinto Colonel of the first regiment of Texas Rangers Born…
Where the Texas Revolution Ended · 2.0 mi
Right here, in what was the small port of Velasco, the Texas Revolution came to an end. In May 1836, just weeks after his defeat at San Jacinto, Mexican General Santa Anna was brought here as a prisoner. Velasco was…
Engineering Metal from Seawater · 2.0 mi
The massive Dow complex you see is home to a world-changing engineering feat. In 1940, Dow's challenge was to extract magnesium, which exists in seawater at a tiny concentration of just 1,300 parts per million. Under…
Freeport, TX · 2.0 mi
Freeport's economy is heavily influenced by its chemical industry, with Dow Chemical Company's Texas Operations facility being the largest integrated chemical manufacturing facility in the United States. The production…
The Metal from the Sea that Helped Win the War · 2.0 mi
Look toward the sprawling Dow chemical complex. In 1940, with war raging in Europe, that site became a national priority. The United States desperately needed magnesium, a lightweight metal essential for building…
America's Secret Oil Barrel · 2.0 mi
Just a few miles from here is a place of immense national importance you can't see: the Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This site is a massive underground salt dome, the same one that gave Freeport its start…
Velasco · 2.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the site of Velasco, a place that saw some of Texas's very first moments. In 1821, the ship 'Lively' landed here, bringing the first immigrants to Stephen F. Austin's colony. Just over a decade…
The River That Moved · 2.4 mi
As you look at the water here at Quintana, you're seeing only half the story. This was once the mouth of the Brazos River, but in 1929 engineers moved the entire river. The problem was that the natural mouth was…
The International Port of the Texas Republic · 2.4 mi
It’s hard to imagine now, but in the late 1830s, this quiet spot was an international port and a cornerstone of the new Republic of Texas. After winning independence from Mexico, Texas was its own country, and Quintana…
The Hurricane That Sealed Quintana's Fate · 2.4 mi
By the end of the 1800s, the old port of Quintana was already in decline. But the final, devastating blow came on September 8th, 1900. The same monster hurricane that famously destroyed Galveston swept over this…
Duval, Burr H. · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Burr H. Duval, commander of the Kentucky Mustangs under James W. Fannin, Jr. , at Goliad, was born in Nelson County, Kentucky, in 1809, the son of Nancy (Hynes) and William Pope Duval . He was educated at St. Joseph's…
McKinney, Thomas Freeman · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Thomas Freeman McKinney, trader and stock raiser, was born on November 1, 1801, in Lincoln County, Kentucky, the fourth of eleven children of Abraham and Eleanor (Prather) McKinney. Two of his brothers, Charles Chastain…
The Confederate Fort at the River's Mouth · 2.4 mi
During the Civil War this coastline became a strategic battleground. The Union navy blockaded the whole Southern coast to cut off Confederate supplies, and the mouth of the Brazos River was a key target. The…
Quintana, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near the mouth of the Brazos River, right where Quintana sits. Believed to be named for a Mexican general, this spot was a major seaport for Austin's colony back in the 1820s. It was a bustling place,…
Perry, Stephen Samuel · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the coast, and right here is where Stephen Samuel Perry managed Peach Point Plantation. He inherited this sugar plantation from his family, including his uncle,…
Bryan, Lewis Randolph, Jr. · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving near Quintana, Texas, the birthplace of Lewis Randolph Bryan, Jr. Born in 1892, Bryan's life was shaped by Texas history, a passion he inherited as a great-grandson of Emily Austin Perry, Stephen F.…
Velasco Lodge No. 757, A. F. & A. M. · 2.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Velasco Lodge, a Masonic lodge that's been part of Brazoria County history for over a century. Chartered on December 8, 1893, the lodge's first home near the Brazos River was destroyed by…
The Sulphur Dome That Became a National Oil Vault · 2.6 mi
The salt dome that gave Freeport its start has had a strange second life. Bryan Mound, the low rise a couple of miles south of town, was mined dry of sulfur by 1935 and could have been forgotten. Instead, in 1977 the…
Bryan Mound · 2.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Bryan Mound, a place that literally fueled early 20th-century industry in Texas. Back in the first decade of the 1900s, engineers found massive sulfur deposits right here. This discovery led to the…
Quintana · 3.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Quintana, a place with a history stretching back to at least 1532. Imagine this: a thriving village, then a crucial port of entry for the Republic of Texas, and a strategic point during the Civil…
Allen Place · 3.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past Allen Place, built in 1883 by the Jarvis family as a boarding house in Old Quintana. This place has seen some weather, surviving major Gulf storms, including Hurricane Carla in 1961. Today, it's…
Velasco Cemetery · 3.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Velasco Cemetery, a place dedicated way back in 1891. Brazos Investment Company set aside these 2.5 acres to be the only public burial ground in the county. The deed said plots were to be used…
Quintana Cemetery · 3.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Quintana, one of the last physical reminders of an early Texas seaport. Just across that storm levee lies the Quintana Cemetery. It started as a family burial ground for Henry and Josephine Seaburn,…
The Lively · 3.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Lively, the very first ship to bring emigrants to Stephen F. Austin's colony. That happened way back on December 23rd, 1821. Just a little over ten years later, this spot was the…
The First Shot of the Texas Revolution? · 4.1 mi
Right here in what's now a quiet beach town, one of the first fights of the Texas Revolution took place. In June of 1832, a group of Texan colonists loaded a cannon onto a vessel up at Brazoria and started down the…
Capital of a Republic · 4.1 mi
Imagine a place important enough that a brand-new nation runs its government out of it. For a brief, critical stretch, this was that place. After the Texas army captured Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of San…
How to Move a River · 4.1 mi
As you drive through Surfside, you might cross a bridge over a calm body of water called the 'Old Brazos River.' But why 'Old'? Because in 1929, engineers pulled off something remarkable: they moved the mouth of the…
The Storm That Erased a Town · 4.1 mi
You've probably heard of the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. But the storm that really shaped this exact spot came a quarter-century earlier. The town that once stood…
Lemský, Frederick · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, near where Oyster Creek is today. Right here, back in 1836, a European musician named Frederick Lemský joined the Texas army. He's said to have played his flute, a tune called…
Oyster Creek, TX · 4.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, near Oyster Creek. This community owes its start to a pair of brothers, known only as Horn and Horn. Back in the 1890s, they formed a company to sell lots in the prairie along…
Surfside Beach, TX · 4.1 mi
Surfside Beach, Texas, isn't exactly known as a celebrity hotbed. It's more the kind of place where the biggest excitement is a good fishing report or a sea turtle nesting. But that doesn't mean notable folks haven't…
Velasco · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker
Here was fought a battle-- the first collision in arms between Texas colonists and the Mexican military-- a conflict preliminary to the Texas War for Independence. On June 26, 1832, when Texans under John Austin and…
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past a true Texas giant right now – the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway! This isn't just a ditch; it's America's most valuable waterway, stretching over a thousand miles from Brownsville all the way to…
Acadia, Sinking Site of the Blockade Runner · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the sinking site of the blockade runner Acadia. This sidewheel steamer, owned by Canadians, set out on her maiden voyage in December of 1864, loaded with food, hardware, and clothing. Her mission: to…
Velasco · 4.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Velasco, a vital Texas port during the Civil War. Imagine this: dark nights, the faint glow of boilers burning hard coal to minimize smoke. Blockade runners, carrying precious cotton…
The Town That Dow Built · 4.4 mi
Before 1940, the area around Oyster Creek was quiet, rural and agricultural -- cattle country that had turned into cotton and sugar plantations. Then Dow Chemical arrived, and everything changed. Needing magnesium for…
The Secret Highway in the Water · 4.4 mi
Right now, you’re crossing a landscape shaped by a massive, hidden piece of engineering. Nearby, Oyster Creek flows into a man-made channel called the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. It’s essentially a protected highway for…
Stringfellow Ranch · 4.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the land that was once the Stringfellow Ranch, a massive 20,000-acre spread right here in southern Brazoria County. Robert Stringfellow started working cattle at just 14 years old, back in 1880. He…
Cannan, William Jarvis · 5.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of William Jarvis Cannan's Texas story. Born in South Carolina in 1808, he arrived in Texas in 1835, just in time to join the army fighting for independence. Cannan was there for the…
Durazno Plantation · 5.7 mi · Scraped Hmdb
This unassuming land once played a vital role in supplying the US Army during a pivotal moment in American history. In 1846, the Durazno Plantation, owned by Judge Robert H. Williams, became a crucial supply depot for…
The Clute Sign That Named a Restaurant Empire · 5.7 mi
There are now El Toro Mexican Restaurants scattered across Texas, but the name was born right here in Clute. Eugene Ybarra opened his first place in La Porte in 1960 with twelve hundred dollars and a lien on his own…
Willed to Austin's sister Emily · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Durazno Plantation. Originally a part of Stephen F. Austin's 1828 Mexican land grant, Durazno (Spanish for "peach") plantation was willed by Austin to his sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, upon his…
Durazno Plantation · 5.8 mi · Historical Marker
Originally a part of Stephen F. Austin's 1828 Mexican land grant, Durazno (Spanish for "peach") plantation was willed by Austin to his sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, upon his death in December 1836. The property was…
The War Boom That Woke a Crossroads · 6.2 mi
For more than a century Clute was nothing but plantation ground and a handful of houses. What changed it was a war and a metal. In the early 1940s the Dow Chemical Company built next door at Freeport, and on January 21,…
Willie Man-Chew and the Great Texas Mosquito Festival · 6.2 mi
Clute decided long ago that if you can't beat the mosquitoes, you throw them a party. The Great Texas Mosquito Festival has run since 1981, every year on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of July at Clute…
Selena's Brother Learned Music in a Clute Classroom · 6.2 mi
Before he produced and co-wrote the hits that made his sister Selena a legend, A.B. Quintanilla was a kid in the band hall at Brazoswood High School in Clute. The Quintanilla family settled in next-door Lake Jackson,…
The Place Where Texas's Father Died · 6.2 mi
Right here at Jones Creek was the one place Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas, ever called home. It wasn't his house. It was his sister's. Peach Point Plantation, between Jones Creek and the Brazos, belonged to…
The Westminster Abbey of Texas · 6.2 mi
You're very close to a small, unassuming cemetery that holds more Texas history per acre than almost anywhere in the state. It's the Gulf Prairie Cemetery, the burying ground of Peach Point Plantation, in use since…
The Hidden Salt Dome Powering an Industry · 6.2 mi
Beneath the flat landscape near Jones Creek lies a geological feature that quietly fuels the whole region: the Stratton Ridge Salt Dome. Picture a column of solid salt, miles deep and about a mile across, that has…
Jones Creek, TX · 6.2 mi
Jones Creek, Texas, holds a significant place in the history of the Lone Star State. It was the first location in Texas where Stephen F. Austin, known as the Father of Texas, settled. His original grave can be found in…
The Ice Age Giant Under the Sand Pit · 6.2 mi
In November 2003 a backhoe operator working a sand pit near Brazoswood High School in Clute snagged something no one expected on the Texas coast: a pair of mammoth tusks buried in the ground. Word reached scientists…
How a Yankee With a White Beard Gave the Town Its Name · 6.2 mi
The ground under Clute started as some of the richest cane land in Brazoria County. In 1824 Alexander Calvit, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, took title to land here, and the neighboring Eagle…
The Buccaneers Who Brought Home a State Title · 6.2 mi
Brazoswood High School opened in Clute in September 1969, pulling together students from across the Brazosport area under the Buccaneers banner in Columbia blue and silver. It took the young school only five years to…
Clute, TX · 6.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Clute, Texas, a town with roots stretching back to one of the very first plantations in Brazoria County. In 1824, Alexander Calvit, one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, and Jared E.…
Archer, Dr. Branch Tanner · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site associated with Dr. Branch Tanner Archer, a key figure in early Texas. He served as President of the Consultation in 1835, a pivotal moment for the Republic. Archer then traveled to the…
Eagle Island Plantation · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past what used to be Eagle Island Plantation, home to Sarah Ann Groce Wharton and William Harris Wharton. William was a big deal in early Texas history. He served in the Convention of Texas in 1832, then…
Wharton, William Harris · 6.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Clute, and right here is a marker for William Harris Wharton. He was a key player in the Texas Revolution, starting with the Battle of Velasco back in 1832. Wharton didn't just fight; he led. He…
Pulling Warplanes from the Sea · 6.8 mi
In 1933 Clute was ten people and two little businesses at a crossroads. What turned it into a city was an incredible feat of chemical engineering just down the road during World War Two. The Allies desperately needed…
The Great Texas Mosquito Festival · 6.8 mi
If you want to understand Clute's sense of humor, you need to know about its biggest party: The Great Texas Mosquito Festival. Every July, this town throws a massive three-day festival to 'celebrate' its most annoying…
The WWII Boomtown · 6.8 mi
Imagine this place in 1940: a crossroads with barely a dozen people, named for the Clute family who settled here after the Civil War. As late as 1933 Clute had two businesses and a population of ten. Then, on March 7,…
The Ghosts of Eagle Island Plantation · 6.8 mi
The streets and subdivisions of Clute sit on ground that used to be plantation land — the old Calvit and Eagle Island places. Eagle Island got its start in 1826, on five leagues that Jared Groce, the richest man in…
Clute, TX · 6.8 mi
Clute's history began at the junction of the old Calvit and Eagle Island Plantations. Alexander Calvit, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, obtained title to the land in 1824. After the Civil War, Joseph…
Mammoth Lake · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Clute, and right here, this spot was once a massive sand pit, but it's got a history stretching back to prehistoric times. Nomadic tribes hunted here, and by 1822, Jared E. Groce, a big-time…
The Mouth the Corps of Engineers Closed · 7.1 mi
Down at the bottom end of the San Bernard, near the little community called River's End, is a lesson in what happens when you move one river and forget about its neighbour. In nineteen twenty-nine the Army Corps of…
One-Eighth Mile South to Peach Point · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Peach Point, home of Emily M. Perry. She was the only sister of Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas. After San Felipe burned in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>, Austin himself…
Gulf Prairie Cemetery · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Gulf Prairie Cemetery, a pioneer burial ground originally part of Peach Point Plantation. It's been used by descendants of Stephen F. Austin's sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, since 1829. And get…
Battle of Jones Creek · 7.4 mi
You're passing Jones Creek in southern Brazoria County, named for a bloody fight that played out right here in 1824. The Karankawa ruled this coast — tall, tattooed, and feared by the colonists for a reputation, handed…
Nolan Ryan Expressway: Who It's Named For · 7.4 mi
The Nolan Ryan Expressway is named after Nolan Ryan, a Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher who grew up in Alvin, Texas. The highway carries this name from Freeport to the Harris-Brazoria county line in recognition of the…
Brown, Major Reuben R. · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of Major Reuben R. Brown, a man who saw action in the Texas War for Independence. In January of 1836, Brown joined the Matamoros Expedition, and was part of the detachment that…
Bryan, Major Guy M. · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the birthplace of Major Guy M. Bryan, a man who truly saw Texas history unfold. Born in Missouri in 1821, he rode a mule to Texas in 1831 to join his uncle, Stephen F. Austin. Bryan fought as a…
William Joel Bryan · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the birthplace of William Joel Bryan, a man whose family tree branches out to touch the very roots of Texas. He was the grandson of Moses Austin, the visionary who first dreamed of an Anglo-American…
Major James Peckham Caldwell · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a man who saw Texas independence from two key battles. Major James Peckham Caldwell was wounded fighting at the Battle of Velasco back in 1832. Then, four years later, while Texas won its…
Henry William Munson · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where Henry William Munson lived, a heroic early Texas soldier. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1793</say-as>, Munson fought in the Battle of the Medina near San Antonio in…
James Franklin Perry · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jones Creek, near where James Franklin Perry established his farm and mercantile business. Born in Pennsylvania in 1790, Perry moved to Texas in 1831 at the urging of his brother-in-law, Stephen…
Nolan Ryan Expressway · 7.4 mi · Historical Marker
Honors Nolan Ryan, 8x MLB All-Star, 7-time no-hit pitcher, all-time strikeout leader (5,714). Born Refugio, raised Alvin. Honorary segment on SH-288 in Brazoria County.
The Volunteer Museum With a Dinosaur and a Sea of Shells · 7.7 mi
Tucked into the Center for the Arts and Sciences at 400 College Boulevard, the Brazosport Museum of Natural Science is one of Clute's genuine surprises, and it's free to walk into. It holds one of the largest seashell…
Before Corpus, Selena Sang in Lake Jackson · 7.8 mi
Long before she became the Queen of Tejano music, Selena Quintanilla was a Lake Jackson kid. She was born April 16, 1971, to the Quintanilla family, who had settled in this Dow company town. In 1980 her father, Abraham…
Mining Metal Out of the Gulf of Mexico · 7.8 mi
Just south of here, Dow Chemical pulled off something that still sounds like alchemy: it mined a metal straight out of seawater. Founder Herbert Dow had dreamed since the 1920s of using the ocean as a mine, and on…
The Dentist Who Built the First Plastic Airplane · 7.8 mi
One of aviation's quiet revolutions was dreamed up by a Lake Jackson dentist. Leo Windecker ran a dental practice here in the 1950s, and many of his patients were Dow Chemical scientists working on fiberglass-reinforced…
The Town Dow Built From Scratch · 7.8 mi
Almost everything around you was conjured out of coastal swamp in a hurry, for a war. In 1941 Dow Chemical's Texas Division manager A. P. Beutel decided the company needed a brand-new town to house workers for its…
This Way, That Way, and Any Way · 7.8 mi
If your map app sounds confused, it isn't malfunctioning. Lake Jackson was laid out by architect Alden B. Dow, son of Dow Chemical's founder and a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and he refused to draw the usual flat…
A Whole Town for the War Effort · 7.8 mi
The neighborhoods around you went up at wartime speed for one reason: Dow Chemical needed somewhere to put thousands of workers running its new Freeport plants. When the United States entered World War II, Dow was…
The Summer the Tap Water Made National News · 7.8 mi
In September 2020 this quiet chemical town suddenly led national newscasts for the worst possible reason. A 6-year-old Lake Jackson boy, Josiah McIntyre, died after an infection from Naegleria fowleri, the so-called…
Lake Jackson, TX · 7.8 mi
Lake Jackson is a place born of the land itself, or rather, sculpted by its absence. Ten feet above sea level doesn't leave much room for drama. It's a flat expanse, where the horizon stretches uninterrupted until it…
Mount Zion Cemetery · 7.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mount Zion Cemetery, established way back in 1939. It was later recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2011.
Site of Crosby's Landing · 8.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Crosby's Landing, a crucial hub for early Texas commerce. Thomas Phillip Crosby arrived from New York in 1830, recognizing the need for a vital landing on the Brazos River. After being…
Magnesium from the Sea · 8.4 mi
The entire existence of Lake Jackson is owed to a monumental feat of chemical engineering driven by World War II. In 1940, the British were desperate for magnesium, a metal lighter than aluminum, to build aircraft. The…
The City of Enchantment · 8.4 mi
As you navigate Lake Jackson, you might notice something unusual: the streets curve and wind, and you'll rarely find a simple four-way stop. This is no accident. It's the deliberate work of architect Alden B. Dow, who…
The Ghosts of the Sugar Mill · 8.4 mi
Before Lake Jackson was a city it was a kingdom of sugar. In the 1840s this land was Abner Jackson's plantation, one of three he built, and the sugar and molasses made here helped make him one of the wealthiest men in…
Selena's Suburban Life · 8.4 mi
Lake Jackson is where the Queen of Tejano started. Selena Quintanilla was born here on April 16, 1971, and spent her childhood in this town, on a street named for a flower the way so many streets here are. Her father,…
When the River Rose · 8.4 mi
In late August 2017, Richwood faced its greatest modern crisis: Hurricane Harvey. The storm stalled over Southeast Texas, dumping unprecedented amounts of rain. Here, the danger wasn't just the rain from above, but the…
The Town That Chemistry Built · 8.4 mi
As you travel through Richwood, you're in a place that owes its shape to a remarkable feat of chemical engineering a few miles away. During World War II the government needed magnesium in enormous quantity — a…
The Birth of a City · 8.4 mi
The City of Richwood wasn't planned by a big developer or a corporation; it was willed into existence by its own residents. In the mid-1950s, this area was a patchwork of unincorporated subdivisions. People lived here,…
The Mod Little Building That Ran the Whole Town · 8.7 mi
Tucked into Carriage Square at 101 South Parking Place is a low, angular building that looks like nothing else downtown, and that is the point. Architect Alden B. Dow designed it in 1940 as his on-site office while he…
The Town's Story Under One Roof · 8.7 mi
If you want the whole arc of this place in one stop, it is at 249 Circle Way. The Lake Jackson Historical Museum, run by the Lake Jackson Historical Association, walks you from the Karankawa hunters who roamed this…
Phair Cemetery · 8.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Phair Cemetery, a quiet resting place for some of Brazoria County's earliest settlers. The land itself was originally granted by Mexico to Stephen F. Austin. The first burial here was in 1853,…
Breakfast Tacos on a Street Called That Way · 8.8 mi
The address alone is worth the trip: Nena's Restaurant sits at 104 That Way, on one of Lake Jackson's famously named streets, so you can honestly tell someone the best breakfast taco in town is over That Way. The place…
The Doctor Who Delivered Selena Later Ran for President · 8.9 mi
Here is a only-in-Lake-Jackson collision of fame. The obstetrician who delivered Selena Quintanilla in 1971 was a young local OB-GYN named Ron Paul, whose practice sat at 104 Circle Way in town. He spent years in…
Brazos Canal · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a massive, failed 19th-century infrastructure project. In 1841, local landowners formed the Brazos Canal Company, aiming to connect inland plantations to the Gulf. Construction started in…
Old Oakland Plantation · 9.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Old Oakland Plantation, founded back in 1828. Henry Munson bought this land from none other than Stephen F. Austin himself, who lived right next door at Peach Point Plantation. Munson…
Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena] · 9.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Lake Jackson, Texas, the birthplace of a Tejano music legend: Selena Quintanilla Perez. Born right here in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1971</say-as>, Selena, known simply as Selena,…
Ellerslie Plantation · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Ellerslie Plantation, once a powerhouse of Brazoria County sugar production. John Greenville McNeel, one of Stephen F. Austin's 'Old Three Hundred,' established this massive operation…
Muzzy, Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove · 9.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here, in Lake Jackson, Mary Sue Hairgrove and her husband Jim owned and operated two local radio stations. After Jim passed away unexpectedly in 1967, Sue, with no prior…
Brannen, Bess Courtney · 9.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Lake Jackson, Texas, a town that remembers a profound loss. It was here, in 1945, that the American Legion Post 306 was named in honor of Andy Brannen. Andy was the oldest son of Bess and Carl…
Jackson, Abner · 9.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the modern town of Lake Jackson. Right here, in the mid-1800s, stood Retrieve Plantation, owned by Abner Jackson. By 1860, Jackson was the second-largest slaveholder…
Lake Jackson, TX · 9.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Lake Jackson, a community with a fascinating rebirth story. The land you see was once the site of Abner Jackson's plantation, worked by as many as eighty-two slaves in the mid-1800s. After the…
Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge · 9.7 mi
The Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge spreads across more than forty thousand acres of coastal prairie, salt marsh, and freshwater wetland where the Texas mainland meets the Gulf, in Brazoria County south of Lake…
Visiting Brazoria Refuge — What to Know · 9.7 mi
A few things worth knowing before you pull into the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. First, the entrance: aim for the automatic gate at twenty twenty-two County Road two twenty-seven, off Farm-to-Market five…
The Texas Division and the Rapido River · 10.4 mi
State Highway Thirty Six and U S Highway One Ninety both carry the name Thirty Sixth Division Memorial Highway. The Thirty Sixth Infantry Division was called the Texas Division, because when it entered federal service…
Joseph H. Hawkins · 10.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through the Lake Jackson area, and you're passing the site of a crucial partnership that helped launch Texas. Joseph H. Hawkins, a lawyer and former congressman from Kentucky, became friends with a broke…
Herzog, Sofie Dalia · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, Texas, home to Dr. Sofie Herzog, a woman who defied expectations. Born in Austria, she followed her husband to America and eventually to this very town. At first, the locals were…
Mills, David Graham · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, Texas, and right here, you might have passed the former site of Low Wood Plantation. This was the heart of David Graham Mills' empire. In 1850, Mills and his brother Robert were…
Mills, Robert · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here, Robert Mills built an empire from scratch. He arrived in Texas in 1830, joining his brother in a trading post. Soon, their burro trains and ships were pushing…
Pease, Elisha Marshall · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once the Municipality of Mina, but Elisha Marshall Pease found his destiny further south, right here in Brazoria. He arrived in Texas in 1835, and by the very next year, he was helping to…
Russell, William Jarvis · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Velasco, a key flashpoint before Texas independence. Right here, on June 26, 1832, William Jarvis Russell, commander of the schooner Brazoria, is said to have fired the very first…
Anthony, Daniel W. · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Fort Bend County, near the San Bernard River, but back in 1832, this was the wild frontier. Daniel W. Anthony, a newspaperman and attorney, arrived in Texas and immediately jumped into…
Archer, Branch Tanner · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Brazoria County, Texas, a place that was once home to Branch Tanner Archer. He was a doctor, a legislator in Virginia, and even killed a man in a duel in 1828. But Archer's real story…
Cloud, John Wurts, Sr. · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from where John Wurts Cloud, Sr. arrived in the Austin colony before 1831. Though ordained as an Episcopal priest, he didn't publicly practice his ministry here. Instead,…
Cone, Horace · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Columbia, Texas, a town that dreamed of reaching the Pacific. Horace Cone, a lawyer and legislator, was deeply involved in an ambitious plan in the early 1880s to build a railroad…
Gray, Franklin C. · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria, a town that was once the epicenter of Texas's nascent newspaper scene. Right here, in 1834, Franklin C. Gray launched the Texas Republican. For over a year, until October 10, 1835, it…
Jack, William Houston · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, right where William Houston Jack made his mark during the Texas Revolution. In 1832, Jack became a leader against Mexican authority, helping draft the famous Turtle Bayou…
Jordan, Levi · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the San Bernard River. Right here, Levi Jordan established what many historians consider the first true sugar mill in Texas. Arriving in 1848, Jordan brought his…
McNeel, John Greenville · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, the heart of Texas's early sugar country. Right here, John Greenville McNeel arrived with Stephen F. Austin's first colonists back in 1822. He fought in the battle of Velasco and…
Brazoria, TX · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria, a town with a name chosen for its uniqueness. Established in 1828 by John Austin, this settlement on the Brazos River was once a "stirring village" of 800 people. By 1890, it boasted 900…
McNeill, James Calvin, Sr. · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here is a place that played a role in the life of Captain James Calvin McNeill, Sr. He arrived in Texas as a boy in 1848, growing up on a sugar plantation. After…
Mims, Joseph · 14.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, Texas, where Joseph Mims, an early settler and veteran of the War of 1812, established a life. Mims was part of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, receiving land in…
The Doctor Who Let Gravity Pull the Bullets Out · 14.6 mi
In the 1890s a Vienna-born physician named Dr. Sofie Herzog set up practice in Brazoria and quickly became the doctor outlaws and lawmen alike came to when they'd been shot. Bullet wounds were her specialty, and she…
John Austin's Port on the Brazos · 14.6 mi
You're rolling into one of the oldest Anglo towns in Texas. In 1828, John Austin laid out Brazoria here on the west bank of the Brazos River, on land granted through his kinsman, the empresario Stephen F. Austin, whose…
The Cannon That Floated Out to Start a War · 14.6 mi
In June 1832, the trouble with Mexico turned into gunfire, and it shipped out from right here. After Brazoria residents voted for armed resistance on June 20, Captain John Austin split roughly a hundred militiamen into…
Brazoria, TX · 14.6 mi
Brazoria, Texas, has a rich history that dates back to 1828 when it was founded on land granted by Stephen F. Austin to John Austin. The town's name was chosen for its uniqueness, as John Austin stated, 'for the single…
Dr. Sofie Deligath Herzog · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Brazoria area, home to Dr. Sofie Deligath Herzog, an Austrian immigrant who became a pioneering surgeon in early 20th-century Texas. Despite limited opportunities for women, she excelled,…
The Press That Came Downriver · 14.6 mi
In 1832 a hand-cranked printing press arrived in Brazoria, and with it came one of the very first newspapers in Texas. Godwin Brown Cotten hauled the equipment down from San Felipe de Austin, where the colony's pioneer…
When the Brazos Drowned the Bottoms · 14.6 mi
The same river that built Brazoria has repeatedly tried to wash it away, and the worst of those reckonings came in the summer of 1899. Between roughly June 17 and 28, a tropical system stalled over the Brazos watershed…
Six Men, One Live Oak, and the First Lodge in Texas · 14.6 mi
On Pleasant Street in Brazoria stands a sprawling live oak that quietly launched an institution. In March 1835, with Mexican authorities suspicious of any organized gathering, a handful of Masons — among them Anson…
Brazoria Townsite · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Brazoria, a town that was once the bustling port and social heart of Stephen F. Austin's colony. Established in 1828 by John Austin, this place saw the legendary Jane Long, widow of Dr.…
Long, Jane · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brazoria, and right here is where Jane Long ran a legendary boarding house and tavern. Born in Maryland in 1798, she moved to Texas and opened this popular spot in 1832. It wasn't just a place to…
Dido's on the San Bernard · 14.6 mi
If you want a meal with a river view in Brazoria, point yourself toward Dido's at 2922 County Road 519, perched on the bank of the San Bernard River. The name is a clue to its roots — "Dido" means grandpa in Croatian, a…
Barrett, Don Carlos · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where Colonel Don Carlos Barrett lived out his final years. Born way up north in Vermont in 1788, Barrett came to Texas and became a key player in the early days of the revolution. In 1835,…
Brazoria Cemetery · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Brazoria, heading past the old Brazoria Cemetery. This land was officially set aside for burials back in 1827 by the Mexican government, intended as a Catholic cemetery but open to all Austin…
First Presbyterian Church of Brazoria · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Presbyterian Church of Brazoria. Organized in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1913</say-as> with eleven members, services were held in a room over a store until a…
Austin, John · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Brazoria area, where John Austin made his mark on Texas. He was part of Long's Expedition way back in 1819, and later became a pioneer settler in Stephen F. Austin's colony. Austin served as the…
Snow, Sheriff Joe H. · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the area where Sheriff Joe H. Snow lived and served. Born in West Columbia in 1872, Snow began his public service as a justice of the peace for over a decade. He then moved to law enforcement,…
The Storms That Changed History · 15.0 mi
If you wonder why Brazoria, once the capital of the Municipality of Brazoria and by some accounts the busiest port west of New Orleans, is a small town today, the answer is politics as much as water. In 1894 land…
The Steamboat That Saved an Army · 15.0 mi
A key moment in the Texas Revolution involved a steamboat that first tied up right here: the Yellow Stone. She arrived at Brazoria in November 1835 and went to work running cotton on the Brazos between San Felipe and…
The Unruly River · 15.0 mi
The town of Brazoria exists because of the Brazos River, but it has also been nearly destroyed by it. This is a classic story of hydrology and engineering. The Brazos is a powerful, low-gradient river, meaning it flows…
The First Lodge · 15.0 mi
In the 1830s Brazoria was the most cosmopolitan town in Texas — commerce, politics, and dangerous new ideas. Stephen F. Austin had tried to organize a Masonic lodge in Texas back in 1828 and failed. Then in the spring…
Brazoria, TX · 15.0 mi
The city's name, Brazoria, was chosen by John Austin for its uniqueness. He stated, 'for the single reason that I know of none like it in the world'. This distinctive name sets the city apart and reflects its early…
Masonic Oak · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a truly historic moment in Texas. Right here, in March of 1835, the very first Masonic Lodge in Texas was organized. It was called Holland Lodge, and it met here in Brazoria. This humble…
A 76-Foot Father of Texas · 15.4 mi
Drive Highway 288 near Angleton and you can't miss him: a towering white figure of Stephen F. Austin, the empresario who brought the first Anglo colonists to this very county in the 1820s, now standing guard over the…
McCroskey - Stringfellow House · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the McCroskey-Stringfellow House, a home with roots stretching all the way back to Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300." John McCroskey, a tanner, built this place in 1824, right after getting his land…
First Presbyterian Church of Angleton · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Angleton's First Presbyterian Church, a story of faith and community resilience. Organized in 1896 with just fifteen members, this congregation faced hardship. The devastating 1900 storm…
Cast Iron and Live Music Downtown · 16.0 mi
If you want a meal in old downtown Angleton rather than out on the highway strip, The Dirty South at 116 North Velasco Street is the move. It occupies one of the historic brick storefronts on the original main drag, the…
Sweeny Home · 16.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Sweeny Home in Angleton. This Victorian house, built in 1896, has a unique connection to the county's history. Its owner, Rees P. Sweeny, was the Brazoria County tax collector during a major…
Angleton Independent School District · 16.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Angleton, where education has always been a priority. Back in 1892, two residents donated land for the very first school. Citizens pitched in two hundred dollars to build a simple frame structure,…
First Baptist Church of Angleton · 16.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Angleton, and right here is the site of the First Baptist Church. It got its start way back in 1896, with Joseph Matthew Kailin leading the congregation. But just four years later, a massive…
Bailey, James Briton · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Bailey's Prairie, near the Brazos River. Right here lived James Britton Bailey, one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists. Bailey had a reputation that preceded him, possibly…
Brigham, Asa · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once the heart of early Texas, right here in Brazoria County. Asa Brigham, a name you might not know, but he was a foundational figure. He arrived in Texas in 1830, and by 1836, he was a…
Brown, Reuben Robinson · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Texas, maybe near the coast, and you're passing through a story of survival from the Texas Revolution. Reuben Robinson Brown arrived in Texas in November 1835, just in time to join the Matamoros…
Dodson, Sarah Randolph Bradley · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Harrisburg, a place that saw a pivotal moment in Texas history. Back in 1835, Sarah Dodson, a resident here, was asked to make a flag for a volunteer company preparing to resist the…
Ellersly Plantation · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the Gulf Coast, and you're passing through the echoes of Ellersly Plantation. Established in 1824 by John Greenville McNeel, this was more than just a farm; it was a…
Johnston, Albert Sidney · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through the heart of Texas, a land shaped by conflict and courage. Right here, in what is now Brazoria County, Albert Sidney Johnston made his home. Born in Kentucky, Johnston came to Texas in 1836,…
Logan, Greenbury · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Brazoria County, a place that was once home to Greenbury Logan. Born into slavery in Kentucky around 1798, Logan was freed and came to Texas in 1831. He was a free Black man who became…
Mitchell, Asa · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once the heart of early Texas settlement, near the mouth of the Brazos River. Right here, Asa Mitchell, one of Stephen F. Austin's 'Old Three Hundred,' arrived in 1822. He wasn't just a…
Phelps, James Aeneas E. · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here is the site of Orozimbo Plantation, home to Dr. James Aeneas E. Phelps. Phelps was one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, arriving in Texas in 1822. He…
Smith, Henry · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once the heart of early Texas politics, right here in what is now Brazoria County. And you're passing through the territory of Henry Smith, a man who became known as the first American…
Alsbury, Horace Arlington · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Horace (Horatio, Horacio) Arlington (Alex, Alexander) Alsbury (Alsberry, Allsbury; variant spellings occur in the surname of related Alsburys), possibly a native of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, came to Texas as one of…
San Luis, TX · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
San Luis was on what is now Farm Road 257 across San Luis Pass from the west end of Galveston Island and twelve miles east of Surfside in southeastern Brazoria County. The area, San Luis Island, was still a true island…
Velasco, TX · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Old Velasco, (encompassed by present-day Surfside Beach) on the east side of the Brazos River sixteen miles south of Angleton and near the Gulf of Mexico in southeastern Brazoria County, was founded in 1831. Ten years…
The Records That Moved by Lantern Light · 16.2 mi
Becoming a county seat is rarely peaceful, and Angleton's promotion in 1896 was downright bitter. The honor had long belonged to the older town of Brazoria, and the fight over moving it inland to the young railroad town…
Acadia · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're cruising along the Texas coast, and right here, ten miles northeast of the Brazos River mouth, lies the watery grave of a Civil War blockade runner. The Acadia, built extra large and fast in 1864 for this…
Adriance, John · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, near the town of Columbia, where John Adriance made his mark. Arriving in Texas in 1835, he first helped protect fleeing Texans during the Runaway Scrape and even guarded Santa…
Brazoria County · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, right where Texas history really got its start. Back in 1821, Stephen F. Austin chose this very area for his ambitious colonization project. By 1824, eighty-nine of his original…
Brown, Henry Stevenson · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Brazoria County, perhaps near Columbia, where Henry Stevenson Brown met his end in 1834. But before that, he was a key player in early Texas conflicts. Arriving in 1824, he quickly got…
Bryan, Guy Morrison · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, and right here is where a young courier rode to deliver one of the most famous letters in Texas history. It was March of 1836, and the Alamo had fallen. Sixteen-year-old Guy…
Eagle Island Plantation · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Brazoria County, not far from the Gulf. Right here, back in 1826, Sarah Ann Groce and her husband William Harris Wharton established Eagle Island Plantation. They built it up to cover 16,000 acres…
Edwards, Monroe · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Brazoria County, near Chenango, where Monroe Edwards built his fortune on a dark chapter of Texas history: slave smuggling. Born in Kentucky around 1808, Edwards arrived in Texas in…
Franklin, Benjamin Cromwell · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once the Republic of Texas, a time of revolution and nation-building. Right here, Benjamin Cromwell Franklin was making history. Arriving in Velasco in 1835, he quickly joined the fight…
Green, Thomas Jefferson · 16.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Velasco, a town that played a key role in the Texas Revolution. Right here, in 1836, Thomas Jefferson Green, a veteran of North Carolina and Florida politics, arrived with a Texas…

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Freeport, Texas

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History of Freeport

The Town a Sulphur Company Built RoadyGoat

The Engineers Who Gave a River Two Mouths RoadyGoat

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Velasco

Goode, James Douglas [Jim]

The Treaties of Velasco — Where Texas Independence Was (Almost) Settled

Colonel Robert M. Coleman

Duval, Burr H.

McKinney, Thomas Freeman

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