How Washington, Texas went from being a capitol to a ghost town

Navasoto Examiner:

...
“In 1842, when Washington became the capital for the second time (of Texas), many people of note lived within its confines. Sam Houston and his family were residents for a short while; and Anson Jones lived a few miles out in the country at ‘Barrington.’

“Religiously, educationally, socially and commercially it forged rapidly to the front. A great volume of business was transacted, and brick buildings, some of them three stories high, were erected.

“River traffic assumed business importance about 1842 which year witnessed the appearance of the stern wheeler, ‘Mustang.’ … it was not uncommon sight to see as many as three boats, all being docked at the large wharves at Washington. River traffic improved with a rapidity unparalleled from 1844 to 1854, (during early statehood).”

Mrs. Pennington continued, “at the close of the ‘40s and early 50s … Washington reached the zenith of its glory and attained its greatest commercial importance. With a population of over 1,500 souls it was one of the largest towns in Texas. The old place was prospering and building … until 1858, when it made a fatal mistake of refusing to give a bonus of $11,000 to the Houston & Texas Central Railroad.”

It was then that the “railroad officials abandoned the route which had been surveyed through the Brazos bottom, and built the road to Navasota. There were only about two or three people in Washington who favored the advent of the railroad. The majority of the citizens claimed that it would interfere seriously with their river navigation and trade. One man, with wisdom beyond his fellow townsmen, pleaded with them to raise the bonus.”

After this man walked the streets begging citizens to “accede” to the demand, and seeing his efforts futile, he “cursed the town, and in his wrath prayed that he might live to see the day when the site of Washington would be planted in cotton.”

His prayer by 1915, when Mrs. Pennington’s book published, was nearly granted as, “there is nothing left but a few old buildings fast tottering to the end, one store, which supplies the wants of the adjacent farmers. Around the once proud old town are farms, but the site is so thickly studded with brick foundations, old cisterns and the debris of what was once a commercial center, that it is impossible to plow or cultivate. Weesatche grows in every nook and corner.”
...

All the old buildings are gone.  The area is now a State Park with a replica of the building where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed and museum buildings.  It is a pretty park, but there are none of the original buildings, although the Anson Jones house has been preserved nearby.