Linnville

Linnville was on Lavaca Bay twenty miles from Victoria at a site then in Victoria County and now in Calhoun County. It was one of the most important ports of entry during the early period of the Republic of Texas. The town, originally called New Port, was established by John J. Linn in 1831. It was in De León's colony on a quarter-league grant belonging to Pedro Gonzales. Linn was perhaps assisted in the founding by William G. Ewing, another prominent merchant. Like Cox's Point, Dimmitt's Landing, and Texana, the other ports around Lavaca Bay, Linnville grew up around a core of warehouses. In structures owned by Linn, Ewing, and others were stored goods unloaded from ships and destined for inland markets such as Victoria, Gonzales, and San Antonio; eventually Linnville also became the site of the customhouse for the District of Lavaca.

The population of Linnville was estimated at 200 about 1839. Linn listed 130 town lots for taxation in 1840. That year's census listed eleven slaves in the village. The port also received much attention that year in various emigrants' guides to Texas (see EMIGRANTS' GUIDES TO TEXAS). Orceneth Fisher, in Sketches of Texas in 1840 (1841), called Linnville "a place of considerable business." George W. Bonnell wrote about Linnville as one of the four Lavaca Bay ports "where a great many goods have been received. It is finely situated for the commerce of the up country, and will no doubt be a place of considerable importance. The custom house for the district of La Baca is located at Linnville." According to Francis Moore, Jr., in Map and Description of Texas (1840), the port "is now attracting some attention, as it is the point to which most of the goods and merchandise are shipped for Victoria and other `settlements' on the Guadalupe and Lavacca."