DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the site of Austinia, out here in Galveston County. Now settle in, because this one starts with big dreams and ends with a quiet kind of silence that's hard to shake. As far back as 1825, Empresario Stephen F.
Austin was already bending the ear of Mexico, urging them to improve foreign trade by establishing ports right here in the Galveston area. The man was thinking ahead. Historical references suggest Austinia was settled in the 1830s as part of those very efforts — Austin's push to open this coastline up to commerce.
The original site sat on coastal property Austin himself owned, just one mile north of where the marker stands today. One mile. Close enough to almost touch what might have been.
Then 1836 arrived, and Austin died, and everything he'd been building fell to someone else to carry. That someone was his sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, who became sole proprietor of the village of Austinia. Now there's a name worth saying twice.
She inherited not just the land but the whole unfinished vision. By 1837, a man named George L. Hammeken and his partners were petitioning the Republic of Texas for a charter — a railroad charter, no less — to run a line from Austinia, where the main office was to be located, southwest to Bolivar on the Brazos.
The idea was to stitch Galveston to the mainland, to tap the trade flowing out of that fertile Brazos River valley. It was ambitious. It was exactly the kind of thing Austin had been dreaming about since 1825.
Then in 1839, Emily Perry sold Austinia to her son, William J. Bryan, and his partner — same George Hammeken. And later that same year, Emily's husband, James F.
Perry, came aboard as treasurer of Hammeken's corporation. The Perry family was all in. James Perry had plans drawn up — forty or fifty houses, public buildings, a real town taking shape on that coastal ground.
Forty or fifty. You can almost see it. Except Hammeken later chose an alternate route for the proposed railroad.
And just like that, the plans were never realized. No houses. No public buildings.
Just the land, the gulf wind, and a name — Austinia — that most people have never heard. That's the thing about big dreams in a young republic. Sometimes the railroad turns a different direction, and the town that was supposed to rise just... doesn't.
What the marker says
Empresario Stephen F. Austin urged Mexico to improve foreign trade by establishing ports in the Galveston area as early as 1825. Historical references suggest Austinia was settled in the 1830s as part of Austin's foreign trade efforts in this area. The original site of Austinia was located on coastal property owned by Austin one mile north of this site. After Austin's death in 1836 his sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, became sole proprietor of the village of Austinia. In 1837 George L. Hammeken and partners petitioned the Republic of Texas for a charter to construct a railroad from Austinia, where the main office was to be located, southwest to Bolivar on the Brazos. The railroad was part of a venture connecting Galveston with the mainland to tap the trade of the fertile Brazos River valley. In 1839 emily Perry sold Austinia to her son, William J. Bryan, and his partner, George Hammeken. Later that year Emily's husband, James F. Perry, became treasurer of Hammeken's corporation. James Perry's plans to build 40 or 50 houses and other public buildings in Austinia were never realized as Hammeken later chose an alternate route for the proposed railroad.