Brazoria County Is Where the Republic of Texas Was Born

In late December 1821, the first of Stephen F. Austin's colonists arrived by boat at the mouth of the Brazos River — what is now Brazoria County. By 1824, eighty-nine of Austin's "Old Three Hundred" had received land grants in the area. This was the first authorized Anglo-American settlement in Mexico. It put Brazoria County at the center of early Texas history.

On May 14, 1836, after the Battle of San Jacinto, Mexican General Santa Anna signed the Treaties of Velasco at the town of Velasco, near the present-day Surfside Beach area. Those treaties formally ended the Texas Revolution. Later that year, Columbia (now West Columbia in Brazoria County) became the seat of the Republic of Texas's first elected government. Sam Houston was sworn in as the republic's first elected president in Columbia on October 22, 1836. Stephen F. Austin served as secretary of state and died in Columbia on December 27, 1836.

The Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas documents this history at tshaonline.org. The county's motto, 'Where Texas Began,' reflects this deep tie to the founding of the state.