Paleo-Indian hunter-gatherers, and later Tonkawa, Aranamas, Tamiques, and Karankawa, inhabited the area before the time of European contact.

[3] In 1685, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle established Fort St.

[8] In 1835, Victoria's settlers supported the revolution against Antonio López de Santa Anna, but were ostracized by new incoming Americans, many of whom were adventurous soldiers or fortune hunters, who wrongly profiled them as Mexican sympathizers and forced them to flee after the revolution in 1836.

[3] About 3000 troops of the Texas Army encamped near Spring Creek, Victoria County, under the command of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, as the main defense against a threatened attack by Mexican General José de Urrea.

[11] In 1842, Rafael Vásquez and Adrián Woll led Mexican forces in an invasion into the county.

[13] The next year, Victoria County's first toll bridge was erected across the river, built by Richard Owens and Sylvester Sutton.

[3] Confederate General John B. Magruder destroyed the railroad from Port Lavaca to Victoria in 1863 to keep it out of Union hands.

Mob violence by those same troops resulted in the axing death and corpse mutilation of local official Benjamin F. Hill, who at the time was incarcerated for an alleged self-defense killing of a discharged Union soldier.

[15] The Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railway connect Victoria with Cuero and the coast in 1873.

[3] The New York, Texas and Mexican Railway provided the first cross-country route to Rosenberg Junction in Fort Bend County in 1882.

[24] School districts include:[26] All of the county is in the service area of Victoria College.