Brazoria County, Texas
West Columbia is home to 24 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.
(1802 - 1837) A member of Austin's Colony, 1829. Soldier in the Battle of Velasco; Delegate to the General Convention, 1832; Chief justice of Brazoria County, 1836. In this home, built about 1830, Stephen F. Austin…
View on map ↗Born in Georgia September 14, 1798; died July 10, 1837. Delegate to the Consultation, 1835; signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836.
View on map ↗Came to Texas in January, 1836; led out to be shot with Fannin's men, March 27, 1836, but escaped. Fought at San Jacinto in Captain William H. Patton's company. Died in Columbia, December 27, 1836.
View on map ↗Home of Dr. James Aeneas Phelps, a member of "Old Three Hundred" of Austin's colony, hospital surgeon of the Texas Army at San Jacinto. Here Santa Anna was detained as a prisoner from July to November, 1836.
View on map ↗(1791-1838) One of the "Old Three Hundred" who came to Texas with Stephen F. Austin in 1821. First alcalde of Austin's colony. On this tract of 6,642 acres, granted him in 1824, was later built the town of Columbia,…
View on map ↗First male child born in Austin's colonies in Texas; born October 4, 1822, died in March, 1871. His wife, Elizabeth Cayce Bell, born September 30, 1830, died Feb. 24, 1864.
View on map ↗Last home of James Stephen Hogg, first native Texan to be elected governor. Located on an 1824 Spanish land grant made to Martin Varner. House built by sugar planter C. R. Patton. Restored 1920. Given to the State,…
View on map ↗In September 1836 Columbia, now known as West Columbia, became capital of the Republic of Texas. This took place with the removal of the ad interim government here from Velasco. After the election called by ad interim…
View on map ↗Site given by Josiah H. Bell family-- out of their grant, the first deeded to one of "Old 300" in colony of Stephen F. Austin. Has graves of many heroes of Texas Revolution of 1836. Deeded in 1852 to Bethel Presbyterian…
View on map ↗(February 13, 1810 - November 17, 1887) Born in Massachusetts; came to Texas, 1834. As a young man, held odd jobs, survived 2 shipwrecks, and explored Texas countryside. Fought in 1835 Siege of Bexar, Texas Revolution.…
View on map ↗(November 10, 1816 - December 7, 1903) Faithful soldier, Texas War for Independence. He was in unit of Capt. Jacob Eberly, detailed by Gen. Sam Houston to guard Bell's Landing (East Columbia) until civilians could…
View on map ↗(1809 - 1883) Born in Massachusetts. Came to Texas in 1831. Served in Texas Revolution at Siege of Bexar as wagonmaster for Stephen F. Austin, "Father of Texas". Stole the bells of Mission Concepcion (property of…
View on map ↗(1805 - 1855) New Yorker George Rounds served in Col. James W. Fannin's regiment in the Texas War for Independence but escaped the Goliad Massacre. He settled in Columbia, where he operated a tavern. Just before his…
View on map ↗In 1920, Texas & Pacific Railway official William H. Abrams (1843-1926) of Dallas owned this old plantation land, then considered fit only for pasture. He leased mineral rights to the Texas Company (now Texaco, Inc.),…
View on map ↗About 1833 Leman Kelsey built a story-and-a-half clapboard structure near this location. When Columbia became capital of the Republic of Texas in 1836, the building was one of two which housed the newly formed…
View on map ↗This congregation traces its history to early Methodist missionary activity during Texas' years as a Republic. In 1839 the Rev. Isaac L. G. Strickland was assigned to the Brazoria circuit and organized a Methodist…
View on map ↗Samuel Tubbs, born in Pembroke, Massachusetts in 1792, took the surname of his paternal grandmother, Katurah Angier, in 1812. He received his medical degree from Brown University in 1823 and in 1824 came to Texas as a…
View on map ↗St. John's Masonic Lodge No. 5 traces its history to 1838 when a warrant of dispensation was granted by the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. The first worshipful master, Daniel T.…
View on map ↗A grant from the Rosenwald Foundation of Chicago led to the establishment of a local school for African American students. The foundation represented a collaboration between Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck…
View on map ↗In 1836 and 1837, the town of Columbia (now West Columbia) served as the capital of the Republic of Texas. Josiah Hughes Bell, a colonist with Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred, surveyed and platted Columbia in 1824…
View on map ↗James Price Phillips, descendant of a Brazoria County old 300 family, married Selina Harris Lee in 1911. They had four children, and Price built this house for his wife to commemorate the birth of their youngest child,…
View on map ↗BYRD LOCKHART Byrd Lockhart, Jr. moved to Green DeWitt’s Colony from Missouri around 1826 with several female relatives. He worked as a surveyor for the colony and settled in Gonzales, where he organized defenses…
View on map ↗Charlie Brown, born a slave in the late 1820s, came to the Brazoria County area from Virginia before the Civil War. Despite being illiterate and using an X for his mark beside his name on legal transactions, Brown…
View on map ↗Columbia Historical Cemetery, Corner of Jackson and 15th Street
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