24/7 Trauma & Biohazard Cleanup Near North San Augustine San Augustine, TX

San Augustine is a city in deep East Texas and the county seat of San Augustine County, one of the original counties of the Republic of Texas, formed in 1837.

European settlement in the area began in 1717 with the Spanish Mission Nuestra Senora de los Dolores de los Ais, re-established in 1721 and lasting until 1773; its site is now preserved as Mission Dolores State Historic Site.

The town of San Augustine was established in 1832 under alcalde William McFarland near the mission site, on land owned by Thomas S. McFarland.

San Augustine was named for the Presidio de San Agustin de Ahumada, which itself honored Don Agustin de Ahumada y Villalon, Viceroy of New Spain from 1755 to 1761.

McFarland laid out San Augustine in a grid of 356 plots, making it the first town in Texas laid out in the Anglo-American style rather than the Spanish style.

San Augustine sits on El Camino Real de los Tejas, the old Spanish royal road, and the nearby Lobanillo Swales preserve wagon ruts worn as much as 18 feet deep into the earth.

During the Republic of Texas era, San Augustine served as an important customs station on the border, processing immigrants and imports entering Texas from the United States.

The Presbyterian church organized in San Augustine in 1839 was the first Protestant church established in Texas.

San Augustine briefly had three colleges - the University of San Augustine, Wesleyan College and the University of Eastern Texas - though all three closed within a few years of their founding.

The 2020 census counted 1,920 people in San Augustine in 741 households, down from a peak of 2,930 in 1980, and about half of its residents are Black or African American.