Victoria County, Texas: History
=== Through colonial times ===
Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers, and later Tonkawa, Aranamas, Tamiques, and Karankawa, inhabited the area before the time of European contact. Tawakoni, Lipan Apache, and Comanche were later inhabitants of modern-day Victoria County.
In 1685, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle established Fort St. Louis.
In 1689, Alonso de Leon named the Guadalupe River in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In 1722, Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio and Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga became the first Spanish settlement in Victoria County.
In 1824, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesús Victoria (the future city of Victoria) was established by Martín De León, who started his colony with 5,000 branded cattle and established the county's claim as the "Cradle of the Texas Cattle Industry." It was the only primarily Mexican colony in Texas.
In 1835, Victoria's settlers supported the revolution against Antonio López de Santa Anna, but were ostracized by new incoming Americans, many of whom were adventurous soldiers or fortune hunters, who wrongly profiled them as Mexican sympathizers and forced them to flee after the revolution in 1836. Anglo-Americans resettled the area.
In 1836, Victory County was formed by the Republic of Texas. It is named after Guadalupe Victoria, the first President of Mexico. About 3000 troops of the Texas Army encamped near Spring Creek, Victoria County, under the command of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, as the main defense against a threatened attack by Mexican General José de Urrea.
In 1842, Rafael Vásquez and Adrián Woll led Mexican forces in an invasion into the county.
In 1850, Coletoville was established by German immigrant Carl Steiner. The next year, Victoria County's first toll bridge was erected across the river, built by Richard Owens and Sylvester Sutton.
As of 1860, 1,413 slaves were in the county. In 1861, county residents voted 318–88 in favor of secession from the Union. Victoria County sent 300 men to fight for the Confederate States Army. Confederate General John B. Magruder destroyed the railroad from Port Lavaca to Victoria in 1863 to keep it out of Union hands. He also sank trees and boats into the Guadalupe River.
From 1867-1869, the county was occupied by federal troops. Mob violence by those same troops resulted in the axing death and corpse mutilation of local official Benjamin F. Hill, who at the time was incarcerated for an alleged self-defense killing of a discharged Union soldier.
The Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway connect Victoria with Cuero and the coast in 1873. The New York, Texas and Mexican Railway provided the first cross-country route to Rosenberg Junction in Fort Bend County in 1882.
That next year, the Texas Continental Meat Company was erected in the county and was the largest meat packing plant in Texas. Bray's Ferry was established in 1886 at the San Antonio River by G. B. Amery and John Bray. Twenty years later, the Guadalupe River Navigation Company was established.
By 1930, when oil was discovered at the McFaddin Oil Field, Victoria County held more cattle than any other county in Texas. Foster Air Force Base was established as Victoria Army Air Field as a training air field in 1941.
The Victoria Barge Canal was completed in 1967, connecting Victoria County with the Intracoastal Waterway.