San Felipe de Austin was a bustling place where settlers
received their land grants and headed out into the wilds of Texas. The
revolution caught up with them, and in 1836, settlers burned the entire town
during the Runaway Scrape so Santa Anna could not set up camp there or find any
provisions.
San Felipe de Austin faded from Texas history as
settlements like Washington-on-the-Brazos and the Alamo took a more prominent
place in the books.
In the 1920s, the community decided to preserve and
highlight the importance of San Felipe. According to Bryan McAuley, the San
Felipe de Austin State Historical Site Manager, locals started building up the
site.
We learned these facts, and much more, when we drove over
to San Felipe de Austin State Historical Site 35 miles west of Rosenberg. There
I saw two familiar faces from Fort Bend County – Anise Divin and Shelley Wong –
and their knowledge about this area is quite interesting.
A boisterous tavern and a general store welcomed new
settlers, and one of the earliest Texas newspapers printed from San Felipe from
1829 to 1832.The paper was the unofficial voice of the Texas revolution
movement.
Standing on the quiet prairie surrounding a huge granite
statue of Stephen F. Austin, it's hard to picture the area as a gateway boom
town to the new frontier. The on-site museum, modeled after the Josey General
Store that once served the community, is deceiving. The outside appears simple
and plain, but the inside is chocked full of first-rate educational posters and
artifacts.
There's a replica of the original land grant book, and I
was grateful when Shelley showed me the painstakingly neat land book. Copies of
paintings of the early days of San Felipe are on display as are toys children
love figuring out.
Shelley and Anise kept us entertained with stories about
the early settlers, especially of the women who played an important part in
Texas history. They also knew some of the descendants of those early settlers,
and many of the names are still prominent in current Fort Bend County community
endeavors.
Reluctantly we left the museum and wandered over to a log
cabin. Built in the shot-gun style, a room on one side of the breezeway has a big
box of Lincoln Logs where children can build their own log cabins.
Behind the log cabin is a field separated from the
property by a wooden fence built in the same style the early Texans used. The
field beyond the fence was dotted with vibrant wildflowers and yellow butterflies,
and I wondered how many people had stood in this same spot, looking at an open
land filled with possibilities and opportunity.
The historical site is located at 15945 FM 1458 just
south of Interstate 10 east of Sealy. There are plans to build an Austin Colony
Museum across the street and to fill it with artifacts from the site.
Do yourself a
favor. Take a leisurely drive north on State Highway 36 and enjoy the open
farmlands and prairies along the way. So much has changed in Texas, and it's easy
to think skyscrapers and shopping malls have taken over the land.
Until you look out over an open meadow in San Felipe and see
the dream that called so many to this wide-open land we call Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment