Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) is a public university located in Nacogdoches, Texas. It was founded as a teachers’ college in 1923 and named after one of Texas’ founding fathers, Stephen F. Austin. Its campus resides on part of the homestead of another Texas founding father, Thomas Jefferson Rusk. Stephen F. Austin is one … Read more
The Rice University first opened in 1912 after the murder of its namesake William Marsh Rice. But the saga of the school’s opening extends back a decade or so earlier. On May 18, 1891, Massachusetts-born businessman William Marsh Rice chartered the William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science, and Art as a … Read more
Prairie View A&M University, the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas, originated in the Texas Constitution of 1876. On August 14of that year, the Texas Legislature established the “Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youths” and placed responsibility for its management with the Board of Directors of the Agricultural and … Read more
Washington, better known as Washington-on-the-Brazos, is best known as the location of the drafting and signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence. As the meeting place where the Ad Interim government of the Republic was formed, it thus became the first temporary capital of the Republic. The town again became the capital of the Republic in 1842 … Read more
Victoria is located on the Guadalupe River not far from the Texas coast. The town became the hub of the De Leon Colony, founded by Don Martin De Leon in 1824. Earlier, the site had been known as Las Sabinas, or Cypress Grove. De Leon renamed the town Victoria after Nuestra De Guadalupe De Victoria, … Read more
Velasco, located at the mouth of the Brazos River, is one of the oldest towns in Texas. In 1821, the schooner Lively brought the first of Austin’s colonists to the site, and over 25,000 settlers entered Texas at the port by the time the Texas Revolution had started in 1835. After the Battle of San Jacinto, President David … Read more
San Felipe de Austin was the site on the Brazos River chosen as the headquarters of the colony of Stephen F. Austin. As such, it became the unofficial capital of the region. By 1828, the town consisted of about 20 cabins. As friction with Mexico increased, Austin’s headquarters became a gathering place for meetings of the … Read more
The area around San Antonio was established in the early 1700’s. Its early history centers around several Spanish missions built during that period. The most famous of these missions, the Alamo, served as a fortress in the Texas Revolution at the Battle of the Alamo. Centrally located between the settlements of Texas and the interior of … Read more
Settled in 1716, Nacogdoches claims to be the oldest town in Texas. It was then that Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches was established as one of a series of Spanish missions in the area. The mission and the town were named for the Nacogdoches Indians, who originally inhabited the area. The missions were … Read more
Located on Matagorda Bay at the mouth of the Colorado River, the town of Matagorda lies near the site where French explorer LaSalle landed with some 200 colonists in February of 1685. It was there that LaSalle established the short-lived settlement of Fort St. Louis. The present town of Matagorda was founded in the late 1820’s following … Read more