Brazoria functioned as one of the earliest and busiest commercial hubs of Stephen F. Austin's colony, situated on a bend of the Brazos River that made it a natural port for oceangoing and river traffic. In its early decades the town served as a shipping and receiving point for cotton, sugar, and other cash crops grown on nearby plantations, with warehouses and wharves along the riverfront supporting merchants, cotton factors, and steamboat traffic bound for the Gulf of Mexico. Because of its port role, Brazoria also functioned as a customs point for the Mexican government, and later for the Republic of Texas, overseeing incoming and outgoing goods along the river. The town supported a range of everyday civic and commercial functions typical of a colonial port town, including general stores, taverns, a courthouse, and some of the earliest newspapers published in Texas, which helped spread political news during the years leading up to the Texas Revolution. Brazoria's importance as a river port diminished over the nineteenth century as railroads bypassed the town and repeated floods, fires, and yellow fever outbreaks took a toll on its population. Today Brazoria survives as a small rural community in Brazoria County, its historic townsite marked by state and local historical markers that commemorate its role as an early port, commercial center, and gathering place during the colonial and revolutionary periods of Texas history, rather than as a functioning commercial waterfront.