Harrisburg was founded before 1825 by entrepreneur John Richardson Harris on Buffalo Bayou in what is now eastern Harris County. Harris built a sawmill and shipping operation there, and the town grew into a commercial hub handling lumber, goods, and river traffic bound for San Felipe de Austin and other settlements in Austin's colony, making it one of the earliest industrial and shipping towns in Texas. On December 30, 1835, Harrisburg was formally established as a municipality and government seat. During the Texas Revolution, the fleeing Texas ad interim government took refuge in Harrisburg in April 1836 as Santa Anna's army advanced, using it briefly as a base before evacuating toward Galveston. Santa Anna's forces occupied and burned nearly the entire town on April 16, 1836, sparing only the home of John W. Moore, an event that helped provoke Sam Houston's army to turn and fight, leading to the Battle of San Jacinto days later. Harrisburg rebuilt and incorporated in 1837, later becoming Texas's first railroad terminal and a milling and shipping center, but industrial decline in the late nineteenth century led to its annexation by the City of Houston in December 1926. Today Harrisburg survives as a historic district within Houston's East End, near the San Jacinto Battleground area, marked by Glendale Cemetery and a state historical marker commemorating the town's founding, wartime destruction, and role in Texas independence.