The Flight of the Saltire

[Zardoz]

Well, after viewing the historic stops the wee airship has made, I thought I would take it on a little tour of Texas history,

Todays stop, Stephen F. Austin State Park at San Felipe de Austin, the colonial capital of Texas. About 45 miles West of Houston.


Founded in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin at the river crossing of the Atascosito Road that connected San Antonio to Louisiana, San Felipe de Austin served as the capital for the colony Austin established in Mexican-owned Texas. As empresario, or land contractor, to the Mexican government, Austin oversaw the distribution of almost 6 million acres of land in Texas. San Felipe soon became the second largest town in colonial Texas. It had stores, inns and taverns, and blacksmiths, gunsmiths, watchmakers, hatters, tailors, cobblers, lawyers and bakers—served the area from their San Felipe shops.
The Texas Gazette began publication in San Felipe in 1829 as one of Texas' first newspapers, and the first book ever published in Texas came from its press that same year.





San Felipe served not only as the political center of the Texas Revolution, but also in a key military role. After the Mexican army defeated the Texian troops at the Alamo commanded by San Felipe attorney William Barret Travis, Santa Anna ordered his armies to converge on San Felipe. The Texas army commanded by Sam Houston fell back to San Felipe, and Houston ordered a further retreat toward the east. The San Felipe militia refused to abandon the town, so Gen. Houston ordered them to defend the ferry crossing, and as a last resort, burn it and the town. On March 29, 1836 the entire town of San Felipe de Austin was put to the torch. Unable to cross the Brazos River at San Felipe, Santa Anna and his army turned southward, ultimately crossing downstream at Fort Bend. The two armies would meet two weeks later at San Jacinto, and Texas independence was won on that battlefield.


Memorial obelisk to Stephen F. Austin. Fashioned from native Texas pink granite and funded by Austin County school children. Erected in 1928.


The Father of Texas surveys his colony in this bronze statue erected after the 1936 Texas Centennial.


The original town well, restored in 1928.


The 1840s Josey Store building, restored in the 60's and opened as a museum on the site.


A replica of Stephen F. Austin's first home and land office, built for the 1936 Texas Centennial. Austin only ever had two homes in Texas, both in San Felipe. In the late 1820s, Austin moved to the outskirts of San Felipe to a new home in the "garden lots", it was burned during the 1836 Texas Revolution. Austin wrote in the last few weeks of his life it was the only home he had that he could call his own.

In December 1836, Austin was serving as the Secretary of State in the new capital of Columbia (now known as West Columbia) where he caught a severe cold, his condition worsened and Austin died of pneumonia at noon on December 27, 1836, at the home of George B. McKinstry right outside of what is now West Columbia. Upon hearing of Austin's death, President Sam Houston ordered an official statement proclaiming: "The Father of Texas is no more; the first pioneer of the wilderness has departed."