Jefferson County Is One of Texas's Original Counties

When the Republic of Texas set up its counties in 1836, Jefferson County was one of the first. The county's name honors Thomas Jefferson, carried over from a municipality that had already used that name.

The first county seat was called Old Jefferson, also known as Cow Bayou. It sat on the east bank of Cow Bayou. By 1838, Beaumont had replaced it as the county seat.

The first known European-descended settler arrived at Tevis Bluff — later named Beaumont — in 1824. Before Texas became a state, the local economy ran on cattle ranching and timber.

After the Civil War, rice farming grew. Then oil refining took over after the 1901 Spindletop discovery. The TSHA Handbook of Texas has the full county history.