VIEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
(Please be aware this post was written in 2004 and published at that time in the Houston Chronicle (Houston, Texas) newspaper. Some of the news in this post, therefore, may not be current. Current and future posts on this blog may revisit and update news on this and other posts on this blog. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please send Mic a note using the comment page -Don’t forget to use the orange “subscribe” button to receive new posts-Thanks, Mic)
Texans have an opportunity of a lifetime to see the Texas Declaration of Independence where it was signed one hundred sixty eight years ago. The only surviving handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence will be on exhibit at the Star of the Republic Museum at Washington-on-the Brazos from Thursday February 26 through Texas Independence Day, Tuesday March 2nd.
Maintained and operated by Blinn College, the modern award winning Star of the Republic Museum is located on the 300 acre Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site. It is the only museum in the state created specifically to collect and interpret the material culture and history of the Republic of Texas 1836-1846.
On the grounds of the Washington-on-the Brazos historical site where the museum is located is a replica of an unfinished frame building, now called Independence Hall. It was in this building that fifty nine delegates elected from each municipality in Texas gathered on March 2, 1836 to sign their Declaration of Independence from Mexico. Like the signers of the United States Declaration of Independence, signers of the Texas Declaration would have been signing their own death warrant had they been captured by the rapidly advancing Mexican army.
Washington-on-the-Brazos served Texas as her seat of government while the Convention of 1836 was in session and later as the last capital of the Republic when the Mexican army invaded Texas in 1842. In that year President Houston moved the capital of the Republic from the exposed frontier town of Austin to Washington-on-the-Brazos. The town remained the Republic’s capital until 1845 when it was moved back to Austin.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FESTIVITIES
In celebration of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence the Star of the Republic Museum and Washington-on-the-Brazos Historic Park will sponsor a two day family weekend celebration on Saturday February 28 and Sunday February 29 from 10 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. All admittance fees have been waived for the two day event.
Included in the program will be videos depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence, an interactive audience-cast play, plus period music, lectures, military re-enactors and historic craft demonstrations.
The Star of the Republic Museum and Washington-on-the-Brazos Historic Park may be reached from Brenham by taking Highway 105 east 14 miles then turn right on FM 912. From Navasota take highway 105 west 7 miles then turn left on FM 1155.
For more information call 936-878-2461 or visit the museum website at http://www.starmuseum.org/ .
SINGLE COPY OF DECLARATION SURVIVES
Luckily five copies of the Declaration of Independence were signed at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Copies were disseminated to the municipalities of Bexar, Goliad, Nacogdoches, Brazoria and San Felipe. Of the five copies only one survived beyond the Texas Revolution.
The single surviving original copy of the Declaration of Independence was deposited with the United States Department of State in Washington, D.C. and was returned by the United States to Texas at some time after June 1896. In 1929 the document was transferred from the Texas Secretary of State to the Board of Control to be displayed in a niche in the State Capitol Building. Today it may be seen on display at the State Archives and History Building adjacent to the state Capitol building in Austin.
LEARN TO USE NEWSPAPERS IN GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH
Emily Anne Croom, author of Unpuzzling Your Past and other well known genealogical books, will speak to the Brazosport Genealogical Society at 7:30 P.M. Tuesday March 9. The society meets at the Lake Jackson Public Library in Lake Jackson. Her topic will be Finding Their Names in Print: Using Newspapers in Genealogy.
The meeting is free and the public is invited to attend. For more information contact Linda Barney at txbarneys@orbitworld.net .
