Texas Almanac, 1968-1969 Page: 80
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Historic Sites
AUSTIN COUNTY1.
Named for Stephen Fuller Austin, the fa-
ther of Anglo-American settlement in Texas,
Austin County contains many landmarks of
the state's history. Stephen Austin chose a
site on the Brazos River here as the Capital
of his colony. First called San Felipe de Aus-
tin, the name was later shortened to San
Felipe.
A cabn at San Felipe was the only home
of his own that Austin ever had in Texas.
From it he governed his colony, and other
Anglo-Americans made San Felipe their un-
official capital during the years of increasing
dissatisfaction with the Mexican government.
Among the significant events that took place
at San Fellpe before the Texas Revolution
were the Conventions of 1832 and 1833 and
the Consultation of 1835, all preliminary to
the Declaration of Independence.
The Provisional Government of the Texas
Revolution met there, and it was to San Fe-
lipe that William Barret Travis sent his im-
mortal message from the Alamo. When the
Texas Army under Gen. Sam Houston was
retreating after the fall of the Alamo in 1836,
San Felipe was burned to prevent its falling
into the hands of the Mexicans.
A rebuilt San Felipe became the county
seat of Austin County when the Texas Re-
public was established. In 1846, however,
ellville was chosen as county seat in an
election.
Among the early Texas leaders who made
San Felipe their permanent or temporary
home were Col. Travis, David G. Burnet,
R. M. ("Three-legged Willie") Williamson,
Gall Borden Jr. and Mrs. Jane Long.
Here Thomas J. Pilgrim held Texas' first
Sunday school. San Fellpe also was the homeof two of the state's earliest newspapers, the
Texas Gazette; and the Telegraph and Texas
Register, which became the official organ of
the Republic of Texas when it was estab-
lished soon after the newspaper began publi-
cation.
Today, Stephen F. Austin State Park at
San Felipe contains many landmarks. There
are a restoration of Austin's log cabin, monu-
ments, sites of the ferry crossing and the
landing place where steamboats stopped, the
J. F. Josey Store Museum and others.
The Leshikar House near Nelsonville, built
in 1854 by Josef L. Leshikar and his four
sons, was the first home built in Texas by
Czech settlers. It is being restored and re-
furnished by a descendant of the original
builder who plans to open it to the public.
Throughout Austin County there are other
landmarks, some of which are numbered on
the map on this page. No. 1 is San Felipe;
No. 2 designates Cat Spring, one of the first
successful German settlements in the state
and home of a pioneer agricultural organiza-
tion, called Cat Spring Agricultural Society;
No. 3 is New Ulm, first known as Duff's Set-
tlement for an 1841 landowner, but later
named for Ulm, in Germany; No. 4 is Nel-
sonville, established by 32 Czech families who
came here in the 1850s; and No. 5 is Bell-
ville, named for Thomas B. Bell, one of Aus-
tin's Old Three Hundred colonists who built
a home in this vicinity in 1838.
The pictures show, at the top, the Stephen
F. Austin statue in the state park; below,
left, the home of Cat Spring Agricultural So-
ciety; and below, right, the replica of Aus-
tin's log cabin.
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Texas Almanac, 1968-1969, book, 1967; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth113809/m1/82/?q=%221964~%22: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Historical Association.