History of Liberty

Liberty dates to 1831, when Mexican Land Commissioner José Francisco Madero arrived to validate land titles and establish the municipality of Villa de la Santísima Trinidad de la Libertad, three miles south of the Atascosito Road. Notably, William Barret Travis, later commander of the Alamo, and Sam Houston, both practiced law here. After the Texas Revolution, the town was renamed Liberty, became the county seat, and was incorporated in 1837. It originally included Dayton, then called West Liberty, until the two split in 1898.

Liberty grew as a Trinity River steamboat port and gained rail service in 1858, then boomed after oil was discovered in the South Liberty field in 1925, with the population rising from 865 in 1900 to 3,087 in 1940.

Today the city sits at the junction of US Highway 90 and State Highway 146. It is home to the Geraldine D. Humphreys Cultural Center and the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center, a branch of the Texas State Archives that holds records from ten Southeast Texas counties.