Posts Tagged ‘Texas history’

Auction Oaks

The Auction Oak

The Texas Congress, on January 14, 1839, directed Mirabeau B. Lamar to select a new site as the location for the capitol of the Texas Republic, which should be north of the San Antonio Road, and between the Colorado and Trinidad rivers.

The new capitol was to be named in honour of Stephen F. Austin, and Judge Edwin Waller, who was a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, was chosen as the Republic’s agent. Waller and a surveyor, William H. Sandusky, arrived in what is now the city of Austin in May, 1839, and along with 200 construction workers, laid out the future capitol of the Texas Republic, including streets, a university, a hospital, government buildings, and home sites. Under these oak trees, the Sheriff of Bastrop, Charles King, auctioned off 301 lots of land, for the combined total of $182,585, almost the sum needed to construct the government buildings necessary for the new capitol. These trees are listed in Famous Trees of Texas.