Editing Navasota, Texas (section)

==History==
{{unreferenced section|date=March 2023}}
The [[French people|French]] explorer [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]], who was misguided in his 1687 attempt to locate the [[Mississippi River]] and trying to find his way back to French-held lands near the [[Great Lakes]], came through the area that would become Navasota, where he was murdered by one of his men. After numerous voyages, explorations of the Mississippi River valley, and trading ventures and several mutinies, La Salle's bones are believed to have found their resting place in the Navasota Valley.

Originally called Hollandale after Francis Holland who first settled the area in 1822, Navasota was situated within two Montgomery County land grants. Grimes County was created in 1846 but it would take the forward thinking of James Nolan and others like him before it would renamed Navasota in 1854. The origin of the name Navasota has been debated by many over the years. Some speculate it’s a native American phrase meaning “prickly pear” while others lean toward “muddy waters,” referring to the nearby Navasota and Brazos Rivers. <ref>https://www.navasotatx.gov/residents/history/index.php</ref>

After September 1859, when the [[Houston and Texas Central Railway]] built rails through the town, Navasota became an important shipping and marketing center for the surrounding area. When the nearby historic town of [[Washington-on-the-Brazos]] resisted railways, it forfeited its geographic advantage and began to decline after many of its businesses and residents began to migrate to the new railhead {{convert|7|mi|0}} to the northeast across the Brazos River at Navasota.

[[Slavery in the United States|Slavery was integral]] to the local economy. A few wealthy planters depended on enslaved [[African Americans]] to provide labor for their large [[cotton]] plantations. The slaves were brought to the city and sold in the domestic slave trade. They worked primarily in the cotton fields, which were a major [[cash crop|commodity crop]] in the area. [[Gun]]s were made in nearby [[Anderson, Texas|Anderson]]. Cotton, [[gunpowder]], and [[shoe]]s were made, processed, and stored in Anderson for the [[Confederate States Army|Confederacy]] during the [[American Civil War]].

By 1865, the population of Navasota was about 2,700. Throughout the Civil War, all the marketable goods produced in the region were brought to Navasota, which at the time was the furthest inland railhead in Texas. Such goods were shipped south by rail to [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]], where they could be transported by [[steamboat]] along the Texas coast and up the [[Mississippi River]] to the war effort or exported to [[Mexico]] or overseas to [[Europe]].