Victoria County

The monument took two years longer than its date suggests. In June 1936 Victoria's Centennial commission, chaired by Leopold Morris, proposed a central monument for Memorial Square, and the state approved $3,800, with federal funds covering $1,000. Sculptor Raoul Josset and the architects Page and Southerland worked from Morris's county flag of 1935, and the local commission wrote the inscription. It was completed and erected on September 4, 1938. The Victoria Advocate promised a dedication at a later date, but none was ever held.

What the plaque says

Victoria County Center front: 1528 Cabeza de Vaca 1685 Cavelier de la Salle Under the Mexican Government Victoria was a district in 1832, a Municipality in 1835. Under the Republic of Texas Victoria County was created March 17, 1836 with Victoria as the county seat. Its territory has since been materially reduced through the creation of other counties. The principal industry of the people of the region during the 19th century was cattle raising. Here that industry had its origin in Texas, and Victoria County continues to the present day to be the leading cattle county of the state. 1836 1936 Erected jointly by the government of the United States and the State of Texas Left Front: Victoria County early home of the Karankawa Indians. Region roamed by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1534-1535, the first white man and companions to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Site of the first French settlement in Texas attempted by Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle and companions who built Fort St.Louis on Garcitas Creek in 1685. Devastated by the Karankawa Indians burned by members of the Alonso De Leon expedition in 1689. On its remains the Spaniards constructed Presidio de Nuestra Senora de Loreto de la Bahia Del Espiritu Santo. Right Front: As a protection for the Mission de Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga both established by Joseph De Azlor, Marquis of Aguayo and Father Fray Agustin Patron, O.F.M. in 1722. Both moved to Mission Valley on the Guadalupe River in 1726. Moved finally to Santa Dorotea now Goliad near the San Antonio River in 1749. The area embraced by this county settled by the colony of Martin De Leon, empresario, in 1824 who named the seat of his colony Guadalupe Victoria in honor of the president of Mexico hero of its struggle for Independence

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• De León Plaza — 0.3 mi
  The central plaza of Guadalupe Victoria, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, founded by Martín De León in 1824 and taken from his family after 1836.
• Museum of the Coastal Bend — 1.5 mi
  Victoria College's museum of thirteen thousand years on the middle Texas coast, from Clovis hunters and Karankawa potters to La Salle's lost Fort St. Louis and the first ranches.
• Fannin Battleground State Historic Site — 16 mi
  The open prairie east of Goliad where Fannin's retreating column formed a square short of the Coleto Creek timber on March 19, 1836, and surrendered the next day.
• Fannin Memorial Monument — 25 mi
  The 1938 pink granite memorial over the common grave of Fannin's men, shot on the roads out of Goliad on Palm Sunday 1836, the grave itself found again only in the 1930s.

More markers nearby

• Memorial Square — steps away
• Mitchell School — steps away
• Viola Case — 0.2 mi
• First English Evangelical Lutheran Church — 0.2 mi