Austin County, Texas
Sealy is home to 14 official Texas Historical Commission markers — each one telling a piece of the city’s story. Browse the markers below, then find them on the map and discover more nearby with RoadHistorical.
Daniel Haynes (1828-1913) came to the new railroad town of Sealy in 1881. In 1885 he invented a process and a machine to manufacture a felted cotton, non-tufted mattress. Trademarked under the Haynes name, the…
View on map ↗Completed in 1911 for civic leaders Paul and Mahala Hackbarth, this concrete block house is an unusual example of vernacular architecture. Prominent features include a wraparound porch, Ionic columns on piers, and large…
View on map ↗Founded in 1879 on the route of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad, Sealy was named for Galveston businessman and railroad president George Sealy (1835-1901). By January 1880 a depot was established here, and…
View on map ↗This congregation was organized in 1885, five years after the railroad town of Sealy was founded. Among the church's early supporters was railroad official George Sealy, for whom the town was named and who served on the…
View on map ↗In 1879 Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway Company agent George Sealy purchased 11,635 acres at this location from the township of San Felipe de Austin for the purpose of establishing a railroad depot. The village of…
View on map ↗(ca. 1840-February 22, 1897) James West Bostick, born in a log cabin near Cat Spring, Austin County, Texas, was the son of J.H. Bostick, Alabama native and one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" settlers. James Bostick…
View on map ↗This house was built in 1901-1902 for H. Schumacher. It was purchased in 1906 by Richard H. Haynes (1875-1942) who, with his father, founded the Haynes (Sealy) Mattress Company in 1909. Local confectionery store owner…
View on map ↗Sealy's German immigrants were famous for their love of music. A group of men, some of them Sealy's pioneer settlers, had formed a singing society, called Liedertafel, by 1899. They met primarily in the home of…
View on map ↗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…
View on map ↗German immigrants arriving in Texas during the 1840s soon established singing societies in their new communities to carry on the traditions of their homeland. Although in existence by 1856, the Millheim Harmonie Verein…
View on map ↗Sealy developed on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe railway in 1879. Cotton, rice, corn, cattle and related agricultural businesses supported a quickly-growing economy. In 1907, F. W. Hackbarth, Jr. and his son, John…
View on map ↗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,…
View on map ↗After preaching his first sermon in Sealy on February 11, 1883, Lutheran Missionary Reverend John Trinklein organized the Trinity Lutheran Church Congregation on October 31 of that same year. In the beginning, most of…
View on map ↗Peters Hall was originally built for the Peters-Hacienda Schuetzenverein, a shooting and traditional sportsmans' club organized in 1897. German immigrants moved to this area in droves after Friedrich Ernst (1796-1848)…
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