Herman Pressler, Map of Travis County, 1894, Map #16904, Map Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.

Map of Travis County

This comprehensive map of Travis County was compiled and drawn by Herman Pressler, the son of notable nineteenth-century Texas mapmaker and longtime Chief Draftsman of the Texas General Land Office, Charles (Karl Wilhelm) Pressler.

Pressler’s map of Travis County shows all original land grants as of September 1894. Additionally, the disputed T.J. Chambers survey, stretching from the Colorado River to Williamson County, precedes the later overlaid surveys shown on the map. Creeks, towns, and railroads are detailed, with post offices in southern Travis County being added later in pencil.

[left] Among the land grants depicted in southern Travis County, someone penciled in notations for the Cedar Valley Post Office, as well as a road leading to Dripping Springs. Post offices were important signifiers of growth in a region, as growing populations required additional public services such as mail delivery. [right] The Government Tract which formed the city of Austin, and its supporting legislation, is shown fronting the Colorado River. Waller Creek and Shoal Creek are labeled, and major railroad lines cross the area.

[left] Shaded in blue, surveys bearing only a number with no grantee or file designation represented unsold School Lands in Travis County. In 1894, Land Commissioner William McGaughey reported 26,755 acres of unsold School Land in the county. [right] The large size of this map enabled Pressler to draw at a scale of 4,000 varas per inch, double the traditional scale of 2,000 varas per inch, which greatly improved the level of detail.

The T. J. Chambers grant, shown here in faded, yellowing ink, was issued by the Mexican government in 1835; however, the claim wasn’t returned to the General Land Office until many years later. By this point, additional surveys had been made and, in some cases, subsequently condemned for the town site of Austin. The claim was finally settled in 1925, when the Legislature authorized a $20,000 payment to Chambers’ descendants.

According to Land Commissioner William McGaughey’s 1894 Report to the Legislature, Travis County had 26,755 acres of unsold School Land, set aside for the Permanent School Fund.

Measuring 58.5 by 51 inches, it’s a relatively large county map. Most early maps produced at the GLO were typically based on a scale of 4000 varas (1 vara =33 1/3”) to the inch; however, Pressler drafted this map at a size twice the scale at 2000 varas to the inch, a practice that started in the 1880s and made the information easier to read.

Conservation of this map was funded in 2001 with a donation from Frost Bank.

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