Brazoria County is a county in Texas located on the Gulf Coast within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. Regionally, parts of the county are within the extreme southernmost fringe of the regions locally known as Southeast Texas. Brazoria County is among a number of counties that are part of the region known as the Texas Coastal Bend. Brazoria County QuickFacts.

Its county seat is Angleton, and its largest city is Pearland. Brazoria County, like nearby Brazos County, takes its name from the Brazos River. The county also includes what was once Velasco, Texas, which was the first capital of the Republic of Texas. It served as the first settlement area for Anglo-Texas, when the Old Three Hundred immigrated from the United States in 1821. As of the 2010 census, the population of the county is 313,166.

Brazoria County, like nearby Brazos County, takes its name from the Brazos River, which flows through it. Anglo-Texas began in Brazoria County when the first of Stephen F. Austin's authorized 300 American settlers arrived at the mouth of the Brazos River in 1821. Many of the events leading to the Texas Revolution developed in Brazoria County. In 1832, Brazoria was organized as a separate municipal district by the Mexican government, and so became one of Texas original counties at independence in 1836.

Stephen F. Austin's original burial place is located at a church cemetery, Gulf Prairie Cemetery, in the town of Jones Creek, Texas, on what was his brother-in-law's "Peach Point Plantation". His remains were exhumed in 1910 and brought to the state capital in Austin. Also, the town of West Columbia served as the first capital of Texas, dating back to prerevolutionary days.

Clemens Unit, one of several prisons in Brazoria CountyThe Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) operates six prisons for men and its Region III office in unincorporated Brazoria County. As of 2007,1,495 full-time correctional job positions were in the county. In 1995, of the counties in Texas, Brazoria had the second-highest number of state prisons and jails, after Walker County. In 2003, a total of 2,572 employees were employed at the six TDCJ facilities. The TDCJ units are:

Clemens Unit, near Brazoria
Darrington Unit, near Rosharon - The Windham School District Region III office is within the unit.
Wayne Scott Unit, near Angleton.
(The following 3 are co-located in Otey, near Rosharon.)

Ramsey Unit - The unit is co-located with Stringellow and Terrell. The TDCJ Region III Maintenance Headquarters is within this unit.
Stringfellow Unit, near Rosharon - The unit is co-located with Ramsey and Terrell. The unit was originally named Ramsey II Prison Unit.
C. T. Terrell Unit - The unit is co-located with Ramsey and Stringfellow. It was originally known as the Ramsey III Unit.
In 2007, TDCJ officials said discussions to move the Central Unit from Sugar Land to Brazoria County were preliminary.

Alvin Community College and Brazosport College serve as higher education facilities.

The Brazoria County Library System has branches in Alvin, Angleton, Brazoria, Clute, Danbury, Freeport, Lake Jackson, Manvel, Pearland, Sweeny and West Columbia, and runs the Brazoria County Historical Museum.

TransportationThe Texas Gulf Coast Regional Airport, in central unincorporated Brazoria County, is the county's sole publicly owned airport.

The closest airport with regularly scheduled commercial service is Houston's William P. Hobby Airport, located in southern Houston in adjacent Harris County. The Houston Airport System has stated that Brazoria County is within the primary service area of George Bush Intercontinental Airport, an international airport in Houston in Harris County.

Quick Facts

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