ALCORN, ELIJAH (ca. 1769-1844). Elijah Alcorn (Allcorn), early settler, was born about 1769 in the area of present York County, South Carolina. He may have been the son of James and Catherine Alcorn. Early in life he moved to Georgia, and between 1793 and 1800 he served in the Georgia State Militia as an infantryman under Capt. John Hodge. Sometime in the 1790s he married Nancy (Hodge?); they had six children. Alcorn resided in Georgia as late as 1816 and was listed in the Illinois state census in 1818. He took his family to Texas in December 1821 as one of Stephen F. Austin'sqv Old Three Hundred.qv On January 1, 1822, Alcorn was with the group that camped on a stream they named New Year's Creek, in an area between the sites of present Independence and Brenham. Alcorn received title to 1½ sitios and a labor of land now in Fort Bend, Washington, and Waller counties on July 10, 1824. He brought in freight for the settlers at San Felipe de Austin, participated in local elections, served on a jury in 1825, and acted as road supervisor. The census of Austin's colony in March 1826 indicated that he was a farmer and stock raiser aged over fifty, with a household including his wife, four sons, a daughter, and two servants. In 1835 he signed a petition requesting the organization of Washington Municipality. In May 1840 he filed a mortgage-foreclosure suit in Harris County. Alcorn died on March 21, 1844, in Washington County.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924-28). Eugene C. Barker, ed., "Minutes of the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Austin, 1828-1832," 12 parts, Southwestern Historical Quarterly 21-24 (January 1918-October 1920). Lester G. Bugbee, "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). Telegraph and Texas Register, January 6, 1841.
