Victoria County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 91,319. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. Victoria County is included in the Victoria, TX

Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...

History

* Paleo-Indians

Hunter-gatherers A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

, and later

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...

, Aranamas, Tamiques,

Karankawa The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John ...

Tawakoni The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita and ...

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...

and

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

, first inhabitants. * 1685

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, ...

establishes Fort St. Louis. * 1689 Alonso de Leon names the Guadalupe River in honor of

Our Lady of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe ( es, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe ( es, Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which are believed t ...

. * 1722 Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio and

Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga, also known as Aranama Mission or Mission La Bahía, was a Roman Catholic mission established by Spain in 1722 in the Viceroyality of New Spain—to convert native Karankawa Indians to Chris ...

become the first Spanish settlement in Victoria County. * 1824 Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Jesús Victoria (the future city of

) is established by

Martín De León Martín De León (1765–1833) was a rancher and wealthy Mexican empresario in Texas who was descended from Spanish people, Spanish aristocracy. He was the patriarch of one of the prominent founding families of early Texas. De León and his wif ...

, who starts his colony with 5,000 branded cattle and establishes the county's claim as the "Cradle of the Texas Cattle Industry." The only primarily Mexican colony in Texas. * 1835 Victoria's settlers supported the revolution against

Antonio López de Santa Anna Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (; 21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876),Callcott, Wilfred H., "Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez De,''Handbook of Texas Online'' Retrieved 18 April 2017. usually known as Santa Ann ...

, 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 resettle the area. * 1836 Victory County is formed by the Republic of Texas. It is named after

Guadalupe Victoria Guadalupe Victoria (; 29 September 178621 March 1843), born José Miguel Ramón Adaucto Fernández y Félix, was a Mexican general and political leader who fought for independence against the Spanish Empire in the Mexican War of Independence. He ...

, the first

President of Mexico The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the Co ...

. Three thousand troops of the Texas army encamp 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 José Cosme de Urrea y Elías González (full name) or simply José de Urrea (March 19, 1797 – August 1, 1849) was a Mexican general. He fought under General Antonio López de Santa Anna during the Texas Revolution. Urrea's forces were never ...

. * 1842 Rafael Vásquez and

Adrián Woll Adrián Woll (December 2, 1795 – February 1875) was a French Mexican general in the army of Mexico during the Texas Revolution and the military conflict between Mexico and the Republic of Texas which followed. Woll was governor of Tamaulipas f ...

lead Mexican forces in an invasion into the county. * 1850 Coletoville is established by German immigrant Carl Steiner. * 1851 Victoria County's first toll bridge is erected across the river, built by Richard Owens and Sylvester Sutton. * 1860 There are 1,413 slaves in the county. * 1861 County votes 318–88 in favor of

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

from the Union. Victoria County sends 300 men to fight for the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

. * 1863 Confederate General John B. Magruder destroys the railroad from Port Lavaca to Victoria to keep it out of Union hands. He also sinks trees and boats into the Guadalupe River. * 1867-1869 The county is occupied by federal troops.

Mob mentality Herd mentality, mob mentality or pack mentality describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis. When individuals are affected by mob mentality, they may make dif ...

violence by those same troops results in the axing death and corpse mutilation of local official Benjamin F. Hill, who is at the time incarcerated for an alleged self-defense killing of a discharged Union soldier. * 1873 Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway connects Victoria with Cuero and the coast. * 1882 New York, Texas and Mexican Railway provides the first cross-country route to Rosenberg Junction in

Fort Bend County Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year. It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days. The ...

. * 1883 Texas Continental Meat Company is erected in the county and is the largest meat packing plant in Texas. * 1886 Bray's Ferry is established at the San Antonio River by G. B. Amery and John Bray. * 1906 The Guadalupe River Navigation Company is established. * 1930 Oil is discovered at the McFaddin Oil Field. Victoria County holds more cattle than any other county in Texas. * 1941

Foster Air Force Base Foster Air Force Base (1941–1945, 1952–1959) is a former United States Air Force facility in Texas, located in Victoria County, approximately east-northeast of Victoria. A flying training airfield during World War II, it was part of Ta ...

is established as Victoria Army Air Field as a training air field. * 1967 The Victoria Barge Canal is completed, connecting Victoria County with the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following th ...

Demographics

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 91,319 people, 32,520 households, and 22,172 families residing in the county. As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2000, there were 84,088 people, 30,071 households, and 22,192 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

was 95 people per square mile (37/km²). There were 32,945 housing units at an average density of 37 per square mile (14/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 74.22%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 6.30%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.53% Native American, 0.77%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0.04%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

, 15.92% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 2.22% from two or more races. 39.20% of the population were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race. 16.2% were of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, 6.2%

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and 5.6%

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

ancestry according to

Census 2000 The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 cen ...

. 73.3% spoke

and 25.5%

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

as their first language. There were 30,071 households, out of which 37.20% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.70% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 12.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.20% were non-families. 22.40% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.23. In the county, the population was spread out, with 29.10% under the age of 18, 9.20% from 18 to 24, 28.10% from 25 to 44, 21.50% from 45 to 64, and 12.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.70 males. The median income for a household in the county was $38,732, and the median income for a family was $44,443. Males had a median income of $35,484 versus $21,231 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the county was $18,379. About 10.50% of families and 12.90% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 17.20% of those under age 18 and 11.70% of those age 65 or over.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.8%) is water.

Major highways

U.S. Highway 59 U.S. Route 59 (US 59) is a north–south United States highway (though it was signed east–west in parts of Texas). A latecomer to the U.S. numbered route system, US 59 is now a border-to-border route, part of the NAFTA superhighway, NAFTA ...

Interstate 69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

is currently under construction and will follow the current route of U.S. 59 in most places northeast of Victoria. ** Interstate 69W is currently under construction and will follow the current route of U.S. 59 in most places southwest of Victoria. * U.S. Highway 77 **

Interstate 69E Interstate 69E (I-69E) is a north–south freeway running through South Texas. Once complete, the freeway will begin in Brownsville and head northward before terminating near Victoria as both I-69W and I-69E merge into I-69 toward Housto ...

is currently under construction and will follow the current route of U.S. 77 in most places southwest of Victoria. *

U.S. Highway 87 U.S. Highway 87 (US 87) is a north–south United States highway (though it is signed east–west in New Mexico) that runs for 1,998 miles (3,215 km) from northern Montana to southern Texas, making it the longest north-south roa ...

* Farm to Market Road 444 * Farm to Market Road 616 * Farm to Market Road 622

Adjacent counties

* Lavaca County (north) * Jackson County (northeast) *

Calhoun County Calhoun County is the name of several counties in the United States of America named after U.S. Vice President John C. Calhoun: * Calhoun County, Alabama * Calhoun County, Arkansas * Calhoun County, Florida * Calhoun County, Georgia * Calhoun Cou ...

(southeast) * Refugio County (south) * Goliad County (southwest) * DeWitt County (northwest)

Politics

County government

Victoria County elected officials

Communities

City

(county seat)

Census-designated places

* Bloomington * Inez * Placedo * Quail Creek

Unincorporated communities

* McFaddin * Nursery * Telferner * Moursund

References

External links

Victoria County government's website

''Victoria Economic Development Corporation'' economic development
*
"Victoria County Profile" from the Texas Association of Counties

{{coord, 28.80, -96.97, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 1836 establishments in the Republic of Texas Populated places established in 1836 Victoria, Texas metropolitan area