The name State of Jefferson was a name proposed for a new state in two plans for the division of the State of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

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Background

In the bill that annexed the Republic of Texas

Republic of Texas

The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...

 to the United States, allows the State to divided itself into additional states up to four. With a few division plans drawn up before the Civil War

Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

, Reconstruction brought carpetbaggers that sought the additional government positions which the division of Texas would provide. So the readmitance Constitutional Convention lead to five plans being introduced and additional plans of division lines. In the end the Convention adopted no plan.

1870

With no plan from the Texas Convention, a Congressional plan was drafted to create a State of Lincoln from Texas. This plan never made it out of the committee. Instead, the Howard Bill was introduced calling for two territories and future states, Jefferson and Matagorda, to be formed from Texas. Texas east of the San Antonio River was designated as Jefferson. The rump Texas would then be admitted under Reconstruction plans. The new territories would join when they were considered able to function as states. A competing plan from the state in 1871 proposed a north, east, south, and west division. Neither legislature made final approval of either plan.

Division of the state issued continued over the years with an additional plan in 1906.

1915

With no reapportionment of representatives following the thirteenth U.S. Census, discussion of the division question was renewed in 1914. The western part of Texas had grown in population, and thus should have gotten more representation, but this was dismissed by the legislature. Hardly any state institutions were in the western part of the state, adding to the insult. In the Texas Senate, a proposed State of Jefferson was introduced, to be formed from the twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth state senate districts. With only six senators supporting the bill, it failed.

Support grew for the State of Jefferson in 1921 with the governor's veto over an agricultural and mechanical college to be located in West Texas. While no bill was proposed, West Texas held a mass meeting over the matter, but support quickly declined.