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From: "John Sauer" <>
Subject: [TXAUSTIN] Austin County Changes
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 07:58:04 -0500


Fran Wise asked, "Does anyone have any information about the specific area
that was moved
from Fayette to Austin County and the year in which this happened."

I do not know about the change involving Rockhouse in Western Austin County.
However, I suspect the date was May 19, 1873. This is the only date I know
when Austin County boundaries were changed.

The Handbook of Texas online at
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/web_fetch_doc?dataset=tsha.dst&db=handboo
k&doc_id=23190&query=%231%28The+crisis+came+to+a+head+on+January+8,+1863%29
reports this change in Austin County boundaries which was pushed by Governor
Davis and his Carpetbag Republican administration: "Reconstruction politics
was largely responsible for a crucial alteration of the county boundaries.
As early as 1853 the residents of the eastern part of the county had begun
petitioning the legislature for a separate county east of the Brazos, citing
the expense and inconvenience of crossing the river to transact routine
business in Bellville. When the petition was revived in 1873, the
beleaguered Davis administration, fighting for its existence, decided to
grant the request by carving a new county out of eastern Austin and southern
Grimes counties. The Republicans expected to dominate the new county, with
its large black population, and hoped that by grafting onto it a large
section of northwestern Harris County, where hundreds of Democratic voters
lived, they could pull Harris County into the Republican column. Waller
County, established on May 19, 1873, removed from Austin County not only a
fertile agricultural district but also the thriving commercial center of
Hempstead, with its cotton mill, iron foundry, and rail facilities. The
effects of the loss were mitigated, however, by a postbellum revival of both
foreign and domestic immigration. Nevertheless, in 1880 Austin County's
population of 14,429 was almost 5 percent below the 1870 figure. Black
population, in particular, declined some 67 percent between 1870 and 1880,
to 3,939, or 27 percent of the overall population."

John Sauer

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