Republic Square is an urban park in central Austin, Texas. Located in Downtown Austin, the park features a grassy area meant for festivals and events as well as shaded areas under live oak trees. The SFC Farmers' Market meets at the square every Saturday morning.
History Originally called "Hemphill Square", Republic Square was one of four public squares laid out in the 1839 Waller Plan of Austin by Edwin Waller. The square functioned as a normal urban park up until the mid-twentieth century when it served as a parking lot. The neighborhood surrounding the park became significant for its Mexican American residents throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. During the United States Bicentennial, the city of Austin transformed the square to its former glory, and was later revitalized again in 2017. Despite many physical changes, the historic heritage Auction Oaks survived and remain a centerpiece to the square till this day.
Anecdotal evidence suggests some Tonkawa used Republic Square as a camp, though specific dates are uncertain. An 2024 Austin American-StatesmanBarnes, Michael. 'Austin has done almost nothing', Thanking the Tonkawa for saving the capital of Texas, Austin American-Statesman, May 7, 2024. article posited the City of Austin invited the Tonkawa to camp at Republic Square in 1842 while Austin was partially evacuated for protection from the Comanche.Texas State Historical Association. "The Vásquez Raid and the Woll Invasion: Tensions Between Texas and Mexico". March 5th, 1842, the Mexican Army under Ráfael Vásquez (general) marched into Texas and seized San Antonio; the capital city of Austin north of San Antonio was partially evacuated from 1842 to 1845 in response to the Mexican invasion. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/mexican-invasions-of-1842 The article, based on an interview for the film Tonkawa: They All Stay Together, claimed the "triggering event" for the invitation was a "famously vicious [Comanche] raid in the summer of 1842" in which two Simpson children were abducted. But the Simpson children, William and Jane Simpson, were abducted in 1844, not 1842.Winfrey, Dorman H. & Day, James M. The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest 1825-1916. Five-volume compilation of Native American government papers for the Republic of Texas and State of Texas. The abduction of the Simpson children is discussed in a letter by Thomas G. Western, superintendent of Indian Affairs dated November 7, 1844, Volume 2:131. The children were abducted by rogue Comanches causing a rift with bands that were at this time pursuing peace with Texas. Those responsible were confronted resulting a fight in which Chief Cut Arm, who pursued peace, was killed, along with the son and father responsible for the abduction. Volume 2:283-84 & 298-99Children of Mrs. Simpson abducted, The Standard (Clarksville, Texas) December 4, 1844.Joint Resolution [of Texas Legislature]. Making an appropriation of money for the redemption of William and Jane Simpson, Texas National Register, Washington, TX, January 18, 1845. Washington, Texas, was the temporary seat of government at the time. Other claims that a Republic Square camp 1842-1844 acted as a "tripwire" warning of Comanche raids into Austin, and that "Austin has no record of direct Comanche attacks within the city limits during that period"O'Dell, Bob. How the Tonkawa Tribe Came to Live in Austin Texas [white paper], p.11, Version 1.0, August 2, 2023. Paper cited in Austin American-Statesman, May 7, 2024, 'Austin has done almost nothing', Thanking the Tonkawa for saving the capital of Texas. aren't supported historically. A large raid on Austin occurred in the first half of 1843 before the alleged camp was said to have disbanded. The raid resulted in a running battle between Austinites and Comanches with deaths on both sides. Unlike many other skirmishes in which Tonkawa assistance to Texans was detailedMcGowen, Stanley S., PhD. The Texas Tonkawas, State House Press, 2020.Brice, Donaly E. The Great Comanche Raid: Boldest Indian Attack of the Texas Republic, pp. 44, 36-37, 47, 85, Eakin Press, 1987, none of the half dozen accounts of the 1843 raid mention Tonkawa involvement: raising alarm, help in pursuit, engaging the raiding party, or ritualistic celebration of Comanches that were killed, raising the question of whether the Tonkawa were encamped in Austin then.The raid of 1843 was widely documented: Smith's eye-witness account confirms the year as 1843; Wilbarger puts the raid in January of 1843, Brown says June. Collective descriptions provide the scope and duration of this raid and the resulting running battle between Austinites and a Comanche raiding party.
Smith, John. Eye witness account by James Smith and son John. John Smith documented the raid in a letter to his cousin, Briscoe Center for American History, John Scott and Justina Rowzee Pickle Family Papers, 1834-1960. James Smith (not to be confused with the judge of the same name) was one of the proprietors of Montopolis, his home thought to be the 2nd oldest in Austin (today's Boggy Creek Farm) built the same year as the French Legation. https://txarchives.org/utcah/finding_aids/04466.xml Brown, Frank. Annals of Travis County and of the City of Austin, From the Earliest Times to the Close of 1875, Bell and Coleman, Volume 4:46-49 https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth841238/m1/162/ Jenkins, John Holland. Recollections of Early Texas, p.166 Sowell, Andrew J. Rangers and Pioneers of Texas, pp.58-59 Sinks, Julia Lee. The Indian Raid [of] 1843, Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, 1900 Willbarger, John Wesley. Indian Depredations in Texas, p.142, Hutchings Printing House, Second Edition, 1890. The primary source for the camp described in the Austin American-Statesman article is a paragraph from a 1924 interview of William C. Walsh (1836–1924) months before his death in 1924, aged 87.Walsh, William C. Odds and Ends--Indians, Austin American-Statesman, 20 Apr 1924, p.8. Walsh (1836–1924) was 87 years old in 1924 when the article was written, the year he died. Walsh moved to Austin with his family in 1840 when he was 4 years old. As an adult serving in the Civil War for the Confederacy, he was stationed in Austin from 1862 until the end of the war and lived there rest of his life there. He was witness to events in Austin as a child, as a military officer following the Tonkawa massacre of 1862, and their relocation out of Austin in 1867. The article may reflect and or conflate memories of separate events in Austin history. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/walsh-william-c Walsh describes the camp as being near the "Walker Properties"Polk's Morrison & Fourmy Austin City Directory, 1922. Walsh never mentions Republic Square directly. The "Walker Properties" were located at 310 San Antonio St, Austin, TX 78701, near today's Republic Square Park. https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39153/ and having been the result of the Tonkawa seeking refuge for two years after the Tonkawa massacre of 1862: "[secured by] the enmity of the Lipans, Comanches and other inimical tribes... these Indians made united attack on the Tonks (sic) and almost entirely wiped them out." One factor cited for the 1862 massacre was the Tonkawa's support for the Confederacy, the tribes that attacked them being pro-Union. Fleeing to Austin, a fortified cityFort Magruder and other fortifications were constructed in Austin anticipating Union attack. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=69091 in the Confederacy during the Civil War made sense. Walsh noted it was a mutually beneficial arrangement: Texas' frontier defenses were stretched thin by the Civil War; a Tonkawa presence bolstered defense.Dunlay, Thomas W. Friends And Allies: The Tonkawa Indians And The Anglo-Americans, 1823-1884. Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 1, No. 3, Summer 1981, pp. 147-158. Walsh's camp of two years at Republic Square corresponds to an arrival of the Tonkawa c. 1863TxDOT, Tribal Histories: Tonkawa Tribe. These are reports prepared by TxDOT in conjunction with the tribes themselves. They provide no oral history of a camp between 1842 and 1845. They do document Tonkawa migration back to Austin c. 1863 after the Tonkawa Massacre, pp. 22-24. https://www.txdot.gov/business/resources/environmental/compliance-toolkits/historic-resources/tribal-histories.html until the end of the Civil War when Union forces retook Austin, July, 1865.Terrell, Alex W. The City of Austin from 1839 to 1865, The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 14, July 1910 - April, 1911, pp. 113-128.https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/civilwar/1865_2.html The 1924 article makes a historical error citing a date of 1842 for the Tonkawa massacre, rather than 1862, perhaps misspoke or misquoted by the paper. Contrary to the 2024 Austin American-Statesman article nothing in the Walsh interview suggests the City of Austin invited the Tonkawa to a camp for Austin's protection. Walsh also relates memories from his childhood playing with some Tonkawa children, but ties to a Republic Square camp per se are uncertain given his statement the Republic Square camp was after the Tonkawa massacre of 1862. Evidence of a sizable Tonkawa camp or camps that "more than doubled the city’s population" at Republic Square between the years 1842-1845 while Austin was partially evacuated is lacking with primary sources of that time indicating the Tonkawa were elsewhere.Sources on location of Tonkawa camps and movement 1842-1845
Himmel, Kelly F. The Conquest of the Karankawas and the Tonkawas, 1821-1859, Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and Southwest, Texas A&M University Press, 1999. "By 1838 [the Tonkawa] had located their main campsite on the east side of the Colorado River, below Alum Creek, on lands claimed by General Edward Burleson [Bastrop, Texas]. The association between the Tonkawas, led by Placido and Campos (sic), and General Burleson would sustain the Tonkawas through the turbulent years of the republic .." (p. 82). No reference to Austin for the Republic of Texas era. Winfrey, Dorman H. & Day, James M. The Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest 1825-1916. Five-volume compilation of Native American government papers for the Republic of Texas and State of Texas. Volumes 1 and 2 cover 1825 to 1845. For the years 1842-1845 during Austin's partial evacuation there is no mention of a Tonkawa camp in Austin, but there is evidence of the Tonkawa's location elsewhere. Volume 4, pp.188-195 provides correspondence on removal of Tonkawa from Austin to Jacksboro, Texas, in 1867. The Portal to Texas History https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?q=The+Indian+Papers+of+Texas+and+the+Southwest+1825-1916 Colorado Gazette and Advertiser, Matagorda, Texas, July 9, 1842. March 5th, 1842 the Mexican Army under Ráfael Vásquez marched into Texas and seized San Antonio. Months later in support of the Republic of Texas the Tonkawa and Lipans were mustered for an expedition against the Mexican invasion: "We understand that the whole tribe of Lipans and Tonkewas (sic) have been ordered to move to the vicinity of Corpus Christi, to accompany the army on its march to the Rio Grande". There is no mention of Tonkawa being "ordered" or invited to Austin for its protection and places the "whole tribe" elsewhere.