Austin became the capital of Texas in 1839. After Sam Houston was again elected president in 1841, he attempted several times to have the government returned to Houston, his namesake city and the previous capital.
When the Mexican army invaded and captured San Antonio in 1842, he saw an opportunity to achieve his goal. Enacting presidential emergency powers, he ordered the government and archives temporarily moved to the town of Washington-on-the-Brazos. Residents of Austin protective of their city, or outraged, they feared that the president’s final destination for the government was Houston.
In October 1842, the government moved to Washington-on-the-Brazos. In December, President Houston, stating that “the destruction of the National Archives would entail immediate injury upon the whole people of Texas”, Sent a company of Texas Rangers to Austin to secretly remove the archives from the land office. These archives were. Primarily land records, but also included maps, treaties, and congressional papers. During the night, the Rangers, under direction of Thomas Ward, loaded the archives onto three wagons. Angelina Eberly, a woman who ran a nearby boarding house, noticed the activity and hurried outside to shoot off a cannon kept for ceremonial purposes. Hearing the Canon, residents of Austin swarmed into the streets. Ward later wrote that much excitement prevailed here. A howitzer loaded with grape was discharged at my residence after I heard the cry of “blow the old house to Pieces”, eight shots perforated the building.
The Rangers quickly drove the wagons out of town, with a vigilante committee in pursuit.
The vigilantes overtook the Rangers the next day at Kenny’s Fort in Williamson County. Because President Houston had ordered them to avoid bloodshed, the Rangers surrendered the Archives, which were returned to Austin. However, it was two years before the residents returned the records to the General Land Office. Commissioner Ward closed the General Land Office for a year because the land records were essential to the Land Office and the land grant system. Without them, it was impossible to determine if land was vacant and available to be granted. And to survive, the government of the Republic had to be able to grant land supplied revenue to pay the Republic’s debts, financed its operations and attracted the population vital to the Republic’s survival.
