PORT PRESTON, TEXAS. Port Preston, an abandoned community in Refugio County, was founded in either 1837 or 1838 by Stuart Perry, who claimed to have sailed for Texas in 1834 with emigrants from England and Ireland ready to establish a colony. For some reason he went instead to New Orleans, where he was in the brokerage and banking business during the Texas Revolution. He advanced large sums of money to support the Texans and shortly after the battle of San Jacinto traveled to the new republic to establish Port Preston at the north end of Mission Bay. The townsite was platted on land that had been granted to Robert Patrick Hern, whose title apparently was contested. Maria De Bar, of New York, seems to have been the financial backer of the Port Preston project. Once in Refugio County, Perry deeded several lots and constructed at least one concrete building. On January 26, 1839, Port Preston was incorporated. Thereafter, however, the town made little headway. In the early 1840s Perry sold his interest in the townsite to John H. Norton; no further record of the community has been found.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hobart Huson, Refugio: A Comprehensive History of Refugio County from Aboriginal Times to 1953 (2 vols., Woodsboro, Texas: Rooke Foundation, 1953, 1955).
