DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, there are some places in Texas where the ground itself seems to remember who walked it first — and Austin County is one of them. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with a name: Stephen Fuller Austin, born 1793, died 1836.
The marker calls him pioneer empresario, founder of Anglo-American Texas, and friend, that is not a small set of titles to carry. In 1821, this land was part of the grant made to him — a stretch of Texas real estate that would go on to wear more hats than a man at a costume ball. First it was shaped into a municipality under the Mexican government, back in 1828.
Then the calendar turned, the winds shifted, and on March 17, 1836, it became a county of the Republic of Texas. Named, naturally, in honor of the man whose vision started the whole enterprise — Stephen Fuller Austin himself. Now here is where the story gets its real texture.
Sitting inside Austin County was a place called San Felipe de Austin. From 1824 to 1836, San Felipe served as the capital of Austin's colony. But it wasn't done there.
From 1835 to 1836, that same town became the seat of the provisional government of Texas — meaning that while history was bein made at a furious pace all around it, San Felipe was the room where people were tryin to hold it all together. Then comes 1837, and Austin County needs a county seat. San Felipe steps up — and serves in that role clear through to 1848.
After 1848, the seat moves on to Bellville, and Bellville has held it ever since. From a land grant to a municipality, from a republic's new county to a seat of government, this ground has done a lot of living. Austin County.
The name says everything.
What the marker says
A part of the grant to Stephen F. Austin in 1821, created a municipality under the Mexican government in 1828, became a county of the Republic of Texas, March 17, 1836. Named in honor of Stephen Fuller Austin, 1793-1836, pioneer empresario, founder of Anglo-American Texas. San Felipe de Austin, capital of Austin's colony, 1824-1836, seat of provisional government of Texas, 1835-1836. County seat, 1837-1848, Bellville, since.