On June 8, 1832, land
commissioner José Miguel de Arciniega officially platted the town along
conventional Mexican lines, with a square in the center and blocks set aside for
public buildings. He also officially named the site Bastrop, but two years later
the Coahuila and Texas legislature renamed it Mina in honor of Francisco Xavier
Mina, a Mexican martyr and hero.
On January 1, 1835 Juan
N. Alamonte reported a population of 1,100 in the area, and at the outbreak of
the Texas Revolution the town’s population was approximately 400. Bastrop
served as a business, commercial, and political center for an area that
stretched far beyond Bastrop County; it was the place where settlers rallied for
retaliation and forted up for protection when Indian depredations occurred in
the vicinity. Until the railroad reached the county in the early 1870s, Bastrop
was the only town in the county. In May 1835, Mina citizens became the first to
organize a committee of safety to stockpile arms and keep citizens informed of
revolutionary developments. The town suffered in the Runaway Scrape of 1836,
when residents returned to find it completely destroyed by the Mexican army and
Indians. Indians, particularly the Comanches, who hunted in the area every fall,
continued to provide a major threat until after annexation to the United States
in 1846.
The town was incorporated under
the laws of Texas on December 18, 1837, and the name changed back to
Bastrop. The community then comprised of a courthouse, a hotel, a stockade, a
gunsmith shop, a general store, and a number of residences. With farming, the
timber industry provided a mainstay for the local economy from 1836 to 1860. The
Lost Pine Forest, the westernmost stand of the eastern pine forest and
the only timber available in what was then western Texas, contributed to the
economy. In 1839, when Austin became the capital of the republic, Bastrop began
supplying the city with lumber. Soon, ox teams were carting Bastrop lumber to
San Antonio, along the western frontier, and into Mexico.
Though Protestant services were
held in Bastrop as early as 1835, official organization of a Protestant
congregation did not occur until three years later, when a Methodist church with
fifteen members was begun. The introduction of slaves to the area helped make
cotton a major part of the local economy after 1839 and lessened the
priority of lumber. A post office was established in 1846, and a one-room log
school was in operation the next year. By the 1850s Bastrop was developing
rapidly. In 1851 Bastrop Methodists built the county’s first church, a
weekly newspaper was founded, and the Bastrop Educational Society opened Bastrop
Academy. By the following year, the Bastrop Advertiser had begun its long
publishing history, the academy had been incorporated as Bastrop Female Academy,
and a subscription library had begun. In 1856 Bastrop Military Institute (later
Texas Military Institute, Austin) opened.
Although Bastrop County residents
voted against secession by a narrow margin, the citizens of Bastrop aided the
Confederate cause in a number of ways, including raising money to equip
companies and providing a supply warehouse. Fire destroyed most of the downtown
buildings in 1862, but flood posed an even greater threat. A flood of
area creeks in 1869 forced evacuation of the town as waters rose as high as
forty-six feet. Periodic inundations continued to plague the area until dams
were built in the 1930s. Despite natural disasters, the period during and after
the Civil War saw the rise of varied industry in Bastrop. Through the 1860s and
1870s such businesses as the Bastrop Iron Manufacturing Company, the Bastrop
Coal Company, and Lone Star Mills got their start. By 1884 Bastrop
had a population of 2,000 and three schools, two cotton gins, several general
stores, and a number of other businesses. A wrought-iron bridge erected across
the Colorado in 1890 put the ferries out of business.
With the turn of the century,
stock raising increased. Bastrop established a public library, and by 1909 had
graded schools and two banks. The population in 1910 was 1,707. It hovered
around the 2,000 mark through the early twentieth century. In the 1920s the
Bastrop area was the scene of oil drilling, and between 1928 and 1935 lumber
operations were revived; a Bastrop mill produced thirty million board feet of
lumber annually during those years. Although coal was known to exist in large
quantities a few miles from Bastrop as early as 1837, and was mined between 1860
and 1870, major lignite extraction began only around 1910 and from then until
1940 was the community’s predominant industry.
The population peaked at about
5,000 during World War Il, after the establishment of nearby Camp Swift. When
the camp gradually closed after the war, Bastrop shrank to 4,000, then 3,158 in
1950. Industries in 1947 included a pecan-shelling plant, a cedar-chest
factory, and a cedar-oil manufacturer. From 1950 through the 1970s Bastrop’s
population ranged between 2,950 and 4,050. The 1980s brought new challenges for
the community as Austin grew eastward. Austin sewage polluted the Colorado, and
strip-mining began pressing from the east. In the mid-1980s the town had a
population of almost 4,000. In 1990 the population was 4,044. Residents had
restored many historic buildings, and commuters from Austin lived in Bastrop. As
a consequence of the town’s proximity to Austin, land values soared. Bastrop
remained a center for agribusiness, its industries included oil-well supply and
furniture manufacturing.
Editor's Footnote:
Bastrop has become the financial
and business center of Bastrop County. Rapid growth has occurred along the
Highway
71 Corridor to Austin. With the establishment of the Austin Bergstrom
International Airport within 20 minutes of Bastrop, the city is poised for
growth and activity in the 2000s. New housing is a reality, while preservation
of our historic areas is a top priority. A new Economic Development Park is
finished. The growing School District is dedicated to excellence in education.
With new businesses, infrastructure and streets, the City looks forward to the
2000s while remembering the Past!
Additional History of
Bastrop County Communities
