San Marcos
Heritage Trail: Hill Country
County: Hays
Region: Hill Country
Visit San Marcos County seat of Hays County, is on IH 35 twenty-five miles south of Austin in the southeastern part of the county. The site of several Spanish attempts at colonization became the center of Anglo-American settlementin the area. The first such attempt, in 1755, saw the short-lived establishment of the San Xavier missions and the presidio of San Francisco Xavier. In 1808, the Spanish Governor of Texas, Manuel Antonio Cordero Bustamante, sponsored the civil settlement of San Marcos de Neve near the same site, but floods and Indian raid prompted its abandonment in 1812. In November 1846, Thomas G. McGehee became the first Anglo-American to settle in the vicinity of the San Marcos Springs, but William W. Moon has been identified as the original resident of the site that became San Marcos proper... Moon was soon joined by other former members of John C. Hays? company of Texas Rangers and by Gen. Edward Burleson. On March 1, 1848, San Marcos was designated county seat. In 1851, General Burleson, William Lindsey and Dr. Eli T. Merriman took possession of a 640 acre section of the Juan Veramendi grand and laid out the town center. Tarbox and Brown stagecoaches linked San Marcos with Austin and San Antonio in 1848 and the town began its development as the commercial center for the cart trade between area farmers and ranchers and cattle commission merchants. Cattle and cotton production in the area provided the basis for steady growth of San Marcos as a center for commerce and transportation.
San Marcos Points of Interest
The Missouri, Kansas and Texas, nicknamed "The Katy," built its own line from San Marcos to San Antonio in 1900. It had been using the I & GN's line from Taylor, north east of Austin since 1881. While....
Where Is San Marcos, Texas ?
