Fort Houston

Fort Houston was a stockade and blockhouse of the Republic of Texas at a site that is now on Farm Road 1990 two miles west of Palestine. It was built on the public square of Houston, Anderson County, by Capt. Michael Costley's Company of Texas Rangers and completed before May 19, 1836. It covered an acre of the townsite. Tradition says the blockhouse was built by the rangers and the stockade by the settlers. Although it was an important point of frontier defense from 1836 to 1839, it was never attacked by an Indian force; there were Indian raids on the settlements nearby, however. After the fort was abandoned in 1841 or 1842, Houston became known as Fort Houston, but the settlement declined when Palestine became the county seat. In 1857 John H. Reagan bought 600 acres, which included the old site of the fort and town, and his home became known as Fort Houston. The Texas Centennial Commission erected a marker near the townsite in 1936. State historical markers were later placed near the site and at the nearby Fort Houston Cemetery.