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Visits since 10/2005
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Sheriff's Office:
 
Columbia: The Capital
October 3, 1836 through March 31, 1837
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CHOSEN FOR THE MEETING OF THE FIRST CONGRESS, THE TINY
VILLAGE WAS CROWDED WHEN REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS ASSEMBLED ON OCTOBER 3, 1836.
SAM
HOUSTON WAS INAUGURATED PRESIDENT AND MIRABEAU B. LAMAR VICE PRESIDENT ON OCTOBER 22.
CONGRESS ADJOURNED ON DECEMBER 22, 1836, AFTER DESIGNATING THE NEW TOWN OF HOUSTON THE
SITE FOR ITS SECOND SESSION IN MAY, 1837.
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| Columbia was the only centrally located village
that offered even modest accommodations. San Felipe and Harrisburg had been burned and
Washington, on the exposed frontier, had proved uncomfortably small during the March
convention. The thirty representatives and fourteen
senators met in two buildings: one a five room two story frame house where the senate
gathered and a one story frame occupied by the representatives. The first had been built
as a residence by Henry S. Brown in 1832, and in 1834 became the store of White and
Knight, while the other structure had been the store of L. Kelsey. Although residents had
promised nineteen rooms for government use, only eight had been made available. The other
houses and rooms were doubtless crowded with visitors attending Congress.
During the eighty one days that Congress met in Columbia October
3 until December 22, 1836 it organized the republic's government and created counties from
the former Mexican municipalities. The overwhelming problems concerning national defense
and the lack of money dominated the members' time and continued to be major concerns until
Texas's annexation to the United States in 1846.
Secretary of
State Stephen F. Austin and Secretary of the
Treasury Henry Smith maintained cramped offices in the crowded town along with other
cabinet members.
Sam Houston and some of the cabinet remained in Columbia through the end
of March, 1837, when all moved to Houston along with the printing press of the Telegraph
and Texas Register. |
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| The Capitol of Texas (September to December, 1836) as
reconstructed at West Columbia, Texas. Photographed by Wes Griggs. |
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A sketch of the original Capitol by M. Benson, Columbia
(March 24, 1894): Inscription "The last ______ of this building disappeared about
1906 except two canes made from one of the sills by A. I. Bond, Columbia." |
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| The original Capitol at Columbia, photographed
before the storms of 1900 and 1915.--From the Houston Metropolitan Archives, the Houston
Public Library, Schlueter Collection.
Courtesy Mrs.
Frank T. (Ruth Munson) Smith, Angleton. |
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"Texas Capitol Building at Columbia,"
by an unidentified photographer. Courtesy of Mrs. Beth Griggs. |
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| The 1836 Capitol in ruins. Unidentified
photographer. Courtesy of Mrs. Beth Griggs. |
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