Located on an island owned by Stephen F. Austin in 1832, San Luis was established by the early 1830s. In 1836 the Follett family opened a boardinghouse and established a ferry service between Galveston and Brazoria County. Developers such as George L. Hammeken laid off town lots and planned a major rail and canal connection to local plantations for shipping cotton and other local products. By 1840 San Luis was a thriving community with a population of 2,000. Plans to build a bridge to the mainland and a plat filed with the county clerk in 1841 outlined a city with more than fifty blocks. Storms, harbor sanding, and a depressed economy made San Luis short-lived, and by the end of the 20th century most of the original townsite was under water due to shoreline erosion.