Colorado County, Texas

Colorado County, located in south central Texas, is surrounded on the northeast by Austin County, on the southeast by Wharton County, on the south by Jackson County, on the southwest by Lavaca County, and on the northwest by Fayette County.

Cities, Towns and Communities

Alleyton | Altair | Beason's Crossing | Bernardo | Boedecker Junction | Borden | Chesterville | Columbus - county seat | Eagle Lake | Frelsburg | Garwood | Glidden | Hillcrest | Hoefner | Matthews | Mentz | Nada | Oakland | Rock Island | Sheridan | Weimar

History

Colorado County, one of the original counties of the Republic of Texas, was formed in 1836 and organized in 1837, the first district court being held by Robert M. Williamson in April 1837 at Columbus, the county seat. By 1840 there were 249 heads of families and 319 slaves in the county. A German settlement grew up around the community of Frelsburg around 1839, and the first German university in the state, Hermann University, was chartered there in 1844. Men from Colorado County made up most of Company E, First Texas Mounted Riflemen, during the Mexican War. Cotton and corn were the main crops grown in the 1840s. Among the more notable plantations in the county was that of Robert Robson, who arrived from Dumfries, Scotland, about 1839 and built a concrete castle of homemade lime and gravel on his estate on the south bank of the Colorado River. The castle, surrounded by a moat crossed by a drawbridge, was probably the first building in Texas to have running water, and was a center of social life for the local planters. A steamboat, the Flying Jenny, ran from the castle up the Colorado to Austin. The county was heavily dependent on the river for transporting its crops in the 1840s and 1850s. Keelboats and flatboats operated in the early years of the county, and by the 1840s the Moccasin Belle and other steamboats carried cotton from the county to Matagorda. Water traffic was heavy until the Colorado became too blocked by a raft of floating and sunken timber. Railroads displaced river navigation after the Civil War.

County Histories

Colorado County Chronicles from the Beginning to 1923, 1986, 2 volumes by the Colorado County Historical Commission.

Location

Columbus, TX 29° 42' 23.8428" N, 96° 32' 22.8948" W

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