Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 3, Number 1, January 1993 Page: 45

                                
Capsule History of the
First Century of Colorado County
by Bill Stein
Colorado County, named for the Colorado River which traverses it, was
created in 1836. It was originally substantially larger, but in 1837, part of it was used
to form Fayette County, and in 1846, more territory was lost when Lavaca and Wharton
Counties were created. A surveying error and subsequent border dispute with Wharton
and Jackson Counties added the small panhandle on the southwestern tip of the county
in the early twentieth century.
Despite repeated claims that Columbus was established in 1823, the great
majority of the evidence suggests that the city was planned and named in 1835 and that
it did not really take shape until 1837 or thereafter. Before that, the area that comprises
present Colorado County was sparsely populated. Perhaps the most notable early
resident was Benjamin Beeson, who was granted a league of land south of present
Columbus in 1824. Beeson's large home near the river became a stopping point for
travellers and soon acquired the name Beeson's Crossing.
Beeson's Crossing was superseded by Columbus, which apparently grew
from the efforts of William Bluford Dewees and his partners, at first, Thomas Thatcher
and Robert Brotherton, and then, Joseph Worthington Elliot Wallace, to establish a town.
Indian raids continued to occur with some regularity, and the town grew slowly. Named
the county seat when Colorado County was created, the first courthouse was
constructed on what is still the courthouse square in 1847.
A few years earlier, German settlers, following the example of the man who
called himself Friedrich Ernst, had begun settling in the northern and northeastern part
of the county. Ernst himself had established the community of Industry in what is now
Austin County but quite near present Colorado County. Many of his fellow Germans
made it a point to travel to Industry to visit Ernst before deciding where to settle.
Probably, the first settlers of Frelsburg, Bernardo, and Mentz were among Ernst's
visitors.
To a large degree, but with the notable exception of the German farmers in
its northern parts, the economy of the county in its early days depended on the labor of
slaves on large plantations along rivers and creeks. In 1860, 45% of the people in
Colorado County were slaves. Four years earlier, in 1856, the slaves had reputedly
engaged in a conspiracy to murder their owners and fight their way to freedom in Mexico.
Though the best evidence today suggests that their alleged plot was simply a figment
of the overactive imaginations of the owners, numerous slaves were punished and three
were hanged.
By 1860, there was strong sentiment within the county for the secession of
Texas from the United States. After the election of Abraham Lincoln later that year, pro-
Union sentiment remained strong only among the German settlers in Frelsburg,
Bernardo, and Mentz. During the Civil War, which followed the secession of Texas and
the rest of the Confederacy from the United States, a number of the Germans remained
pro-Union, some going so far as to participate in an organized resistance to the draft,
many others resisting the draft individually. Still, one of the four companies that
Colorado County provided the active army of the Confederacy was comprised of
Germans.

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