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Historical Markers Photo Pages
Organized 1837. Named for 7th president of U.S. Andrew Jackson. Early hunting grounds of the cannibalistic Karankawa Indians. This region was crossed in 1528 by shipwrecked Spaniard Cabeza de Vaca. French Explorer La Salle founded the first settlement, ill-fated Fort St. Louis, in 1685. Its site is said by some authorities to be dimmitt's point (21 mi sw). Most of what is now Jackson County lay in Stephen F. Austin's land grant. The first town, "Santa Anna," was founded by six members of Austin's "Old 300" colonists in 1832. The town, later named "Texana," was the predecessor of Edna. (1968)
JACKSON COUNTY, C.S.A. In 1861, voted for secession 147 to 77. With its beef and cotton, helped supply south. Furnished salt from beds near Cox's Creek. Hides and tallow from a plant between Port Lavaca and Texana. Lead from Navidad Mine (now a "Lost Mine"). Homefolk molded bullets and sent to fighting men, along with clothes woven, sewed or knitted by the family. Couriers operated along a line that skirted blockaded coast from mouth of Caney Creek to Brownsville. Home Guard kept enemy ships off the shores. A Confederate gunboat, chased from Lavaca Bay, sank in the Navidad.
JACKSON COUNTY From 1860 population of 2,612 came more than 100 Civil War soldiers. One infantryman on a crutch: M.K. Simons, a Mexican War amputee, Brigade Quartermaster, 2nd Texas Infantry, C.S.A. Officers included Capt. C.L. Owen, Veteran of the Texas Revolution and Mexican War, killed at Shiloh in 1862. Composed chiefly of Jackson County men were CO. D, 1st Texas Cavalry, CO. K, 2nd Texas Infantry, and CO. M, 27th Texas Cavalry (whitfield's Legion). Jackson men were also in other units, including Confederate Marines and Terry's Texas Rangers. Saw much of war's greatest action.
(seven miles southeast) Among family members buried there: John A. Brackenridge (1800-62), a Warrick County, Ind., neighbor from whom young Abraham Lincoln borrowed law books, 1855 founder of Texana Presbyterian Church; His son, George W. Brackenridge (1832-1920), emissary to Benito Juar�z in Mexico from President Lincoln in 1860s, Founder (1866) San Antonio National Bank, Donor San Antonio's Brackenridge Park, Member first Board of Regents, the University of Texas, serving 30 years, philanthropist; Daughter Mary Eleanor Brackenridge (1837-1924), on first Board of Regents, CIA (Texas Woman's University).
THE FAMOUS LAVACA-NAVIDAD MEETING OF 1835 At the cotton gin of William Millican, near here, on July 17, 1835, occurred the significant Lavaca-Navidad meeting, held by pioneers living near the two rivers. James Kerr, the founder of Gonzales, was chairman and the Rev. S. C. A Rogers, Secretary. The meeting adopted resolutions protesting mistreatment of Texas colonists by the Government of Mexico. This early formal public protest was a forerunner of the Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836, and the constituting of the Republic of Texas.
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