Figs were introduced in the Alvin area around the turn of the century and became an important crop. When cattlemen found northern markets shut off in the late 1860s, hide and tallow factories were established along the Brazos River Brazoria County packed $100,000 worth of canned beef in 1870. By 1867 the value of livestock, chiefly cattle, nearly equaled that of agriculture. Sugar production, reduced in the early years of Reconstruction, burgeoned with the use of convict labor by 1871, but never again reached earlier levels. The principal crops were corn, grains, sweet and Irish potatoes, fruits, wild grapes, and cotton and sugar for export. Economic recovery came slowly in the post-Civil War era. Population grew between 18 from 7,527 to 9,774 due mainly to federal soldiers, Northerners, foreign immigrants and Confederate soldiers from Texas and the Old South. It was here that Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco with the Republic of Texas on May 14, 1836. After Santa Anna was captured at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, Santa Anna and members of his army were taken to Velasco, then the location of the provisional government. Many residents fought in the Texas Revolution or contributed to the cause. Rebellion grew in 18, culminating in the Texas Declaration of Independence. Formation of a permanent council soon thereafter brought the inauguration of mail routes throughout the area. Henry Smith of Brazoria County served as the first provisional governor. After the convention at San Felipe and engagements at Gonzales, Goliad, and Bexar, volunteer companies were organized and a provisional government approved on November 13, 1835. As tension grew for independence from Mexico, formation of committees of public safety met to discuss the impeding break from Mexico. Austin declared war against Santa Anna, Texans began to prepare for a revolution. On March 1, 1835, a meeting near Brazoria led to the first Masonic lodge in Texas, Holland Lodge No. Its highest altitude, Damon Mound, is 146 feet above sea level.Īgriculture in the area began to rise steadily as residents earned their livelihood from cotton as early as the mid-1830’s, making some of the plantation owners in the area some of the wealthiest in Texas. Brazoria County is on the prairie of the Gulf Coast at the mouth of the Brazos River and covers 1,597.44 square miles. Brazoria was the county seat when the county was organized on December 20, 1836, and remained so until 1896, when Angleton replaced it. Quintana and Liverpool were also settled before 1832.īrazoria County took its name from the Brazos River. The earliest communities were Velasco (present day Surfside Beach), East Columbia (Originally known as Bell’s Landing or Marion), Columbia (later West Columbia) and Brazoria. Eighty-nine of Austin’s “Old Three Hundred” colonists had acquired land grants in what is now Brazoria County by 1824. Settlements sprang up along the river which was used to carry supplies and equipment from trading centers in the United States and Mexico and to ship agricultural commodities. Since that time the Brazos has been a central factor in the growth and development of Brazoria County. Many more followed them up the Brazos River to establish their new home in what was then Mexico. Austin’s colonists that came by boat landed in what is now Brazoria County. It started at the mouth of the Brazos River, in late December of 1821, the first of Stephen F.
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