Independence

Mrs. R. E. Pennington's 1915 history of Washington County printed the story as fact: Coles Settlement became Independence when Dr. Asa Hoxey, spelled Hoxie there, renamed it for the Declaration. The deed record the plaque cites is plainer. In 1835 J. G. W. Pierson, Robert Stevenson, Colbert Baker and Amasa Burchard laid out the town on seventy-eight acres, part of a league first granted to Thomas S. Saul and passed to Pierson and Baker. Coles Settlement itself had honored John P. Coles, who settled the neighborhood in 1824.

What the plaque says

Independence Local legend tells of Dr. Asa Hoxey who, celebrating the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, moved to change the name of Coles Settlement to Independence. Actual county records show an 1835 origin for the town of Independence, with C. Baker, J. G. W. Pierson, A. F. Burchard, and R. Stevenson, proprietors. The still-strong Independence Baptist Church was established in 1839 with Pastor T. W. Cox. Local resident Sam Houston was baptized in Little Rocky Creek in 1854. The wealthiest town in Texas by 1845, Independence won the bid for Baylor University, newly chartered by the Republic of Texas. J. B. Root became its first U. S. Postmaster in 1846. By the 1850s Independence had a hotel, jail, stagecoach depot, Masonic lodge, cemetery, and small commercial district. Both the city leaders and Baylor administrators refused to grant right-of-way to the Santa Fe Railroad. By the 1880s, trade was going to competing towns and Independence began to decline. Baylor University moved its schools to Waco and Belton in 1886. By the 1990s, Independence was a rural community with a population of 140. Remaining attractions include the Baptist church and numerous historical sites in the area. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 0.6 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 11 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 11 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Navasota — 16 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• Independence Postal Service — steps away
• Site of Mustering of a Unit of Hood's Texas Brigade, C.S.A. — steps away
• Site of Independence School — steps away
• Old Baptist Church — steps away