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Washington-on-the-Brazos

I am besieged... I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours... The enemy has demanded a surrender... I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender nor retreat...

William Barret Travis
The Alamo - February 24, 1836

Fellow-Citizens of Texas: The enemy are upon us. A strong force surrounds the walls of the Alamo, and threaten that garrison with the sword... Now is the day, and now is the hour, when Texas expects every man to do his duty. Let us show ourselves worthy to be free and we shall be free.

Henry Smith
Washington - March 2, 1836

Independence is declared; it must be maintained. (On March 4 Houston received the appointment of major general of the army from the convention, with instructions to organize the republic's military forces.)

Sam Houston
Washington - March 2, 1836

The first settlers of Stephen F. Austin's Colonists arrived in late 1821. Andrew Robinson settled on the west side of the Brazos with his son in law John W. Hall and built a ferry in 1822. Robinson was given a grant by Baron Bastrop and Stephen F. Austin in 1824 which included a league of land and the authority to operate the ferry. The town was surveyed and platted in 1833. Dr. Asa Hoxie named the town Washington - after a town in Wilkes County, Georgia - said to be the first town in the United States to be named after George Washington.

By 1835 Washington had become a supply point. Attracted by its location on the river and on or near major roads, merchants and tradesmen from neighboring communities settled in the new town. Washington's commercial growth resulted from provisioning emigrants to the interior and from the surrounding area's increasing agricultural development and population. The town was elevated on bluffs above the river and had a plentiful water supply from nearby springs; its location was therefore more healthful and less flood-prone than that of settlements at the river's edge. In December 1835 Washington became Gen. Sam Houston's headquarters and the concentration point for Texas army volunteers and supplies. By 1836 the residents numbered approximately 100. To stimulate further growth, Washington businessmen offered an assembly hall without charge to attract the Convention of 1836 to their town. These town promoters rented the only structure large enough for deliberations, an unfinished building, from entrepreneur Noah T. Byars.

On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico and became the Republic of Texas. Life was never the same again. For ten years, from 1836 to 1846, Texas existed precariously as a seperate and unique nation. In Texas, March 2 is an official state holiday - Texas Independence Day.

The Convention of 1836

In early March, 1836, the unlikely town of Washington, a small, roughhewn, ramshackle town, which had sprung up around a ferry landing next to the Brazos River entered the history books as the birthplace of Texas. It was here that on March 1, 1836, delegates elected from each municipality in Texas convened in an unfinished frame building. While the forces of General Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo, the Convention of 1836 declared Texas' independence from Mexico, wrote a new constitution which established the Republic of Texas and organized an ad interim government.

The convention elected Richard Ellis, delegate from Red River, president of the convention, and Herbert S. Kimble secretary. The delegates had very little time to debate over their mission. The Texas Declaration of Independence was done literally overnight. They elected a committee of five delegates to draft the document. The committee, consisted of George C. Childress, Edward Conrad, James Gaines, Bailey Hardeman, and Collin McKinney, prepared the declaration in record time. It was briefly reviewed, then adopted by the delegates of the convention the following day. Afterwards they prepared a Constitution for the newly formed Republic, and organized an an interim government. These actions were accomplished amid almost daily reports of the invasion on Texas soil by Mexico, and the collapse of the Alamo and destruction of its defenders.

In the story of Texas' independence from Mexico, the courageous work of the men assembled in Washington is often overshadowed by the fall of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. After all, at the same time these men put ink to paper, the blood of their fellow Texans was being shed at the Alamo, where men like Colonel William Barrett Travis and Jim Bowie fought to their deaths and became folk heroes.

The history books often lose sight of the delegates' courage and clearheaded determination as they labored against a backdrop of fear and uncertainty. They knew the desperation of Travis and his men. They received word of his dire circumstance twice during the Convention. The Alamo was only a few days' march from where they convened, and rumors that Santa Anna was just down the road kept them on edge. Some of the men wanted to recklessly rush to Travis' aid without a military or governmental structure in place, but calmer minds prevailed.

On March 15, news of the fall of the Alamo finally reached the convention and, according to one witness,"spread like fire in high grass," causing "complete panic." One delegate had lost a son at the Alamo, another a brother. Heartsick, fearful of invasion by enemy troops, yet focused on the task ahead, the men remained for another two days and completed the task of electing ad interim officials. On March 17, the delegates, along with the citizens of Washington, fled Santa Anna's advancing troops.

The convention members signing the Declaration were as good as signing their death warrants if the Revolution failed. They were also putting their families at risk and jeopardizing everything they owned. The Texas Revolution could have easily become a long series of Alamos and Goliads as the Mexican army advanced across Texas completely obliterating the rebellion. To the delegates assembled in Washington, that scenario was not just an apocalyptic nightmare, but a very real possibility. Yet these men stood their ground. They worked seventeen straight days and nights to forge a constitution and a government, a government which served the Republic of Texas well during the decade, 1836 - 1846.

When the townspeople returned after the Texans' victory at San Jacinto, they found Washington a relatively undisturbed town. The only plundering had been the work of army stragglers or deserters and other fleeing Texans. But Washington languished while various town fathers lobbied for designation as the permanent capital. A special committee of the Congress passed over Washington and other contenders in favor of Waterloo, a town which would be renamed Austin.

In 1842, President Sam Houston took advantage of renewed invasions by Mexico to move the capital from Austin to Washington. While capital of the Republic, Washington began to grow. It continued to thrive as a commercial center for the Brazos River cotton trade, even after the seat of the government was moved back to Austin in 1845.

The most momentous event since the signing of the declaration of independence occurred in 1845 when the Congress met at Washington on June 16, 1845 and Texas ceased to be a Republic and joined the United States. The United States annexed Texas in December 1845, defining the border as the Rio Grande and sending 3,600 soldiers to patrol it.

From 1849 through about 1858, commerce and population in Washington increased rapidly as the town became a frequent steamboat stop and significant transit point for export of the region's profitable cotton crop. Although residents had access to merchants in Houston and Galveston, service industries catering to travelers, wholesale and retail merchandising, leather, wood, and metal fabricating, construction, and the professions flourished at this important stagecoach stop and riverport.

In 1858 Washington refused to pay the Houston and Texas Central Railroad an $11,000 bonus to link the town to the projected rail line. The new road built to Hempstead in 1858. Construction of the Houston and Texas Central to Navasota in 1859 and of the Washington County Railroad to Brenham in 1860 accelerated the rise of these towns and the decline of Washington, which had insisted on depending on river transportation. With the increasing use of railroads, however, steamboats ceased to operate on the Brazos, and the once-prosperous riverport was doomed. Washington suffered a mortal blow when the railroad bypassed it. The Civil War sealed its fate.

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