DEMOSS, CHARLES (?-1826). Charles DeMoss (DeMass, Demoss, Demos) was one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists. He moved to Texas from Commerce, Missouri, with his wife, Martha, probably before April 20, 1824, when a Charles DeMass signed a petition for the appointment of the Baron de Bastrop to serve as elector for the Austin colony. As one of the Old Three Hundred DeMoss received title to a sitio of land on Caney Creek in what is now Matagorda County, on August 3, 1824. The census of 1826 listed him as a farmer and stock raiser aged between forty and fifty, with a household that included his wife, two sons, and two daughters. Charles and Martha DeMoss apparently both died on December 18, 1826. They were survived by eight children, two of whom were minors. Their eldest son, Peter, was appointed guardian of one of the children.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eugene C. Barker, ed., The Austin Papers (3 vols., Washington: GPO, 1924-28). 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). Matagorda County Historical Commission, Historic Matagorda County (3 vols., Houston: Armstrong, 1986).