CityofCrockett.org

HISTORY

Crockett is the site charted by the French trader, St. Denis, on his travels west to Spanish Mexico in 1715 on the El Camino Real. Empresario Joseph Vehlein located families here in the late 1820's and built a stagecoach stop, a trading post and log fortress for protection at the site, which edged virgin pines and hardwoods between the Neches and Trinity Rivers. These pioneer stalwarts joined the Texas freedom fight in the 1830s, which attracted Tennessee Scout, Davy Crockett, who camped at a nearby spring in January 1836, in route to the Alamo. Winning independence, from Mexico the pioneer residents sought to become a county, and by order of President Sam Houston on June 12, 1837, created the first county of the new Texas Republic.Needing a county seat, A.E. Gossett gave land from his survey for a townsite. He and his father, Elijah, who had seen his former Tennessee neighbor at his campsite, were given the privilege of naming the new county and town: Houston for their General at the Battle of San Jacinto and the first President of the Republic, and Crockett for their former neighbor who had given his life for freedom.

An act of the Republic of Texas incorporated the new town, built around the traditional Spanish square, on December 29, 1837. Crocketts City government was reorganized in the 1870 during reconstruction and continued until the Home Rule Charter was approved in 1960.

The fifth Houston County Courthouse, built in 1938, centers downtown Crockett around which a network of state and U.S. highways carry travelers and trade and connects the crossroads CITY OF CROCKETT with the world.