IdentifierMaps_260aDate1838DescriptionSwartwout was on the east bank of the Trinity River in southwestern Polk County at the site of an Alabama-Coushatta village. It was named for Samuel Swartwout, a New York financier, who organized the town with James Morgan, Arthur Garner, and Thomas Bradley. Swartwout was also involved in other Texas real estate projects, including the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, the New Washington Association, and the development of Austin on Matagorda Bay (see no. 256). The first Anglo-American settlers came in 1835, and by 1844 Swartwout was described as a "rather considerable village" (Hollon and Bulter, p. 315).
The map shows a town with eighty-six blocks, usually with ten lots to a block. Penciled notations, probably in James Morgan's hand, locate lots taken by the first settlers and lots "sold 1st march" 1839. To promote the city, Morgan, Garner, and Bradly had placed an advertisement for "shares or lots" in Swartwout in the Houston Telegraph and Texas Register, November 17, 1838 (see Streeter, Bibliography, no 244).
Streeter (no. 1324) locates only this copy of the map. Reps includes a copy of the map in his Cities of the American West (fig. 5-19), attributing it to Yale University. Yale actually has a photostat of the Rosenberg copy. Language NoteEnglishSubjectTexas--MapsCopyright StatementNo Copyright – Non-Commercial Use OnlySize50x76 centimeters.PrinterPA Mesier & Co
