It is difficult to trace the first white settlers in a country inhabited only by Indians of nomadic habits, such as frequented the shores of Texas. In most cases the first settlers are of habits similar to those of wandering tribes, and after a brief stay, move on to more inviting localities. It is only after they have begun to arrive in considerable numbers, and land titles are issued to them, that accurate data are obtainable as to their names, number and location.
In the case of Harris County we know only that, when the first colonists from the United States came to its shores at the invitation of the empresario, Stephen F. Austin, they found a few settlements already established on the shores of Galveston Bay and the streams emptying into it. The names of some of these settlers have been handed down by unofficial writers in newspapers, a few from the recollections of their contemporaries.
The year 1822 seems to have been the earliest period claimed for any settlements, and it is more than probable that the rumor of Austin's colonization scheme caused them to be made. A few settlers may have come overland from Louisiana, but those of whom record is here made, arrived on shipboard, and were in some instances tossed ashore when their frail boats were wrecked by storms on the reefs and bars of the bay. Numbered among these were Moses L. Choate and Colonel Pettus, on board the Revenge, which was wrecked on Red Fish Bar, in April, 1822. Their schooner, commanded by Captain Shires, ran aground, and the passengers left the vessel and went up the San Jacinto River, where they made homes, probably the first settlements on this river, or in Harris County. Only the names of the two mentioned here have been preserved. There was also a Mr. Ryder, who in 1822 lived alone at the extreme end of Morgan's Point. He was a surveyor. Beyond this nothing has been handed down regarding him.
John Iiams is the next of whom we have record. Embarking at Berwick's Bay, Louisiana, with his family, consisting of a wife and two boys, he landed at Galveston Island on June 3, 1822. He settled on the mainland of Galveston Bay, at what was known as Cedar Point, where a league of land was afterwards granted him by S. F. Austin.
In about two weeks after Iiams and his family arrived, Dr. Johnson Hunter came, with his family. Their advent was attended by dangers and hardships such as were experienced by few. Their vessel was wrecked on Galveston Island; there were five children, one, William, an infant in arms. After repairing the boat, they succeeded in reaching the mainland, afterwards called Morgan's Point, where they first made their home, and where Johnson Hunter located one of the original land grants from the Mexican Government.
Nathaniel Lynch came and settled at the point where Buffalo Bayou flows into the San Jacinto River. This was also in the year 1822. The settlement which grew up around him was called Lynchburg, and the ferry there established was of great service to early settlers, and was long known as Lynch's Ferry. At about the same time John D. Taylor settled on the north side of the San Jacinto River, at a point afterwards known as Midway.
Other settlements on the same river at about this time were made by John Jones, who came out in the same vessel with Iiams.
Humphrey Jackson, John and Frederick H. Rankin also settled about twelve miles above Lynch's. The only settlers on Buffalo Bayou previous to 1824, so far as known, were the Vinces—William, Allen, Robert, Richard and John,—all young men, Ezekiel Thomas, and Moses A. Callahan.
It is said that the earliest settlement in the immediate neighborhood of what afterwards became the City of Houston was made in 1822, by a Mrs. Wilkin, her two daughters, and a son-in-law, Dr. Phelps. They lived for a short time on a tract of land that was afterward known to the early citizens of Houston as Frosttown.
These settlements were made independently of any colonial grant, as Austin had not at that time perfected his arrangements with the Government for colonizing. So soon as this was done, most of these early settlers received, at the hands of his representative, grants for the land occupied by them, and their names were officially entered on the records of Austin's colony.
In 1824, Stephen F. Austin accompanied by his secretary, Sam M. Williams, and the commissioner, Baron de Bastrop, came by appointment to the house of William Scott, who a short time before had bought out the improvements of John D. Taylor on the San Jacinto River. The settlers assembled from far and near to receive their titles to lands. The work of issuing titles, which was begun in July, 1824, by Baron de Bastrop, had not been completed when he was called away. By August 24 he had issued two hundred and seventy-two titles. The work remained unfinished until 1827, when Gaspar Flores was appointed commissioner, and gave deeds to the remaining families of “The Old Three Hundred.” “There was no provision in the law for granting land to men without families. These were joined in groups of two or three and each group constituted a legal family.”
Those in Harris County who received titles at this time (1824) and located their land in this county were:
John Austin, William Bloodgood, Enoch Brinson, John Brown, Moses A. Callihan, David Carpenter, John Cooke, John Dickinson, Thos. Earle, David Harris, John R. Harris, William Harris, William J. Harris, Johnson Hunter, Humphrey Jackson, Nathaniel Lynch, Arthur McCormick, Luke Moore, Frederick H. Rankin, William Scott, Christian Smith, James Strange, John D. Taylor, Ezekiel Thomas, Richard Vince, Robert Vince, William Vince, Amy White, Reuben White and William Whitlock. 271 Patrick Brias received his in 1827.
There seem to have been only about thirty original grants made in Harris County at this time, but there were several settlers in the county who located their lands in other counties embraced within Austin's first colonial grant, and the lands of a few located in two counties, which adjoined each other. Besides the settlers who received land titles there were others, members of the same families, who should be mentioned. For instance, Page Bellew, the father-in-law of William Bloodgood; Charles C. Givens and Presley Gill, who immigrated with William Scott, and Dr. Knuckles, who afterwards married one of Scott's daughters. Another of his daughters was married about 1826 to Sam M. Williams. Thomas Bell, who with his wife and two children had settled just above the mouth of Cedar Bayou, sold out his improvements to Scott, and the land was granted to Scott.
Arthur McCormick immigrated in 1824, and settled on the south bank of the San Jacinto River below Lynchburg, adjoining the settlement of Enoch Brinson. His headright league became noted as the ground on which the battle of San Jacinto was fought, twelve years after he had located his home there. He, together with his wife and two sons, John and Michael, occupied this land as long as they lived.
Reuben White and his four brothers, Jesse, George, Henry and William, all came in 1824 and settled on the San Jacinto about six miles above Lynch's. James Dunman landed at Lynchburg in the same year and settled on the west side of Cedar Bayou, and as late as 1876 was still living a few miles above this point. 272
The bay shore offered most pleasing locations, and were among the earliest to be improved as homes. Among these was the Edwards place at Edwards Point, and that of Ritson Morris near the mouth of Clear Creek on Galveston Bay, which were settled as early as 1825. 273 “In 1828 or 29 Philip Singleton settled on the north bank of Buffalo Bayou between the mouth of Old River and Carpenter's Bayou, on a hill nearly opposite where the Texian army camped the night before the battle of San Jacinto, and built a small log house afterward covered with plank, which is mentioned here because it is the first house in the county of which we have any account which was covered with shingles and had glass window sashes. . . . Singleton afterward sold it to, and it became the home of Lorenzo de Zavala, the distinguished Mexican refugee and Texian patriot.”
“Concerning the settlement of the Spring Creek country not so much is known. Sam McCurley was living there on the league of land granted to him, a few miles from where Hockley now stands, as early as 1829. The Texian army camped there on the retreat to San Jacinto, April 17, 1836. Abraham Roberts lived further down the creek on his headright league.” 274
About 1839 or 40 David Huffman started the Huffman settlement, and in 1876 he was still living there in the midst of his children and grandchildren. 275 The place is now designated on the county map as the town of Huffman.
John Richardson Harris, the first of the name to emigrate to Texas, had made the acquaintance of Moses Austin while living with his family at Saint Genevieve, Missouri, in 1819-21. He agreed to join the colony, should Austin's plan for obtaining the necessary concessions from the Mexican government be perfected. He came to Texas in 1822 or 1823 and selected his land location at the junction of Buffalo Bayou and Bray's Bayou, which he considered the head of navigation. In 1824 he received his title to 4428 acres at this point. A letter from John R. Harris, among the papers of Stephen F. Austin, dated September 15, 1825, shows that he was at that time well established and in a position to supply Austin with a sloop or schooner of light draft. After mentioning other boats which were unavailable on account of being in bad condition, he offers to hire the sloop Mexican, recently purchased by him, to furnish a good master and crew, provisions, etc., and keep everything in repair for a monthly payment of one hundred and thirty-five dollars. In 1826 he laid off the town of Harrisburg, which became an important depot for supplies. The arrivals of his schooners running between this point and New Orleans were events eagerly awaited by the colonists. In 1827 he was joined by his brother David, who was captain of one of the vessels, and his services are recorded in the history of that time. At a later date two other brothers, William Plunket and Samuel, came out. By the year 1829 John Richardson Harris was not only the founder of a town and the owner of a large stock of merchandise, with ships on the sea, but he had also built a steam sawmill, at the junction of Buffalo and Bray's Bayous. In the summer of this year he sailed for New Orleans on the schooner Rights of Man, owned by himself and brother, to procure a piece of machinery for completing the mill, when he was taken sick with yellow fever and died there, August 21. 276 In after years, when Texas had become an independent republic, one of its first counties was named in his honor, and retains this name at the present day. 277
The death of John Harris was followed by an administration upon his estate, and subsequently by a lawsuit on the part of his heirs against the administrator and against Harris and Wilson, which kept his estate in the courts until 1838, when it was finally settled by compromise. This litigation more than anything else prevented the location of the seat of the new Texas government at Harrisburg in 1836, at the time when this honor was bestowed upon Houston. The situation of Harrisburg at the head of navigation on Buffalo Bayou made it by far the better site for a city, especially at a period when water transportation was without a rival. 278
In the list of merchandise comprising a part of the inventory of goods in the store at Harrisburg, there is an assortment such as is usually to be found in a general country store. Along with medicines, hardware, saddlery, candles, candlesticks, candle snuffers, cottoncards, and crockery were listed Murray's Grammars, Walker's Dictionaries, slate pencils and lead pencils, gilt buttons, lace, silk vests, flour, sugar, salt, and ordinary groceries. 279
About the year 1831, David G. Burnet, one of the most important figures in Texas history, after a short absence returned, bringing with him a boiler and steam engine, which he located at Lynchburg. In this enterprise were associated with him Norman Hurd and Gilbert Brooks, who came out with the machinery and assisted in building the mill. The mill stood until 1845, when it was destroyed by fire. Judge Burnet's home was only a few miles from Lynchburg, and an arm of the bay in that vicinity is called Burnet's Bay.
The colonists of Harrisburg municipality increased in numbers and prosperity; farms were opened along the streams, supplies were brought by boats from New Orleans, and peace and contentment reigned. Its citizens played an important part in all the affairs of the colony.
From the reminiscences of Mrs. Dilue Harris I have culled the following brief statements regarding citizens at Harrisburg. 280
“May 1, 1833, Harrisburg had been settled several years. It was settled by four brothers, John Harris, the oldest, had died some years before. His family were living in New York. The other brothers were David Harris, who had a wife and two children, a daughter named Sarah, 281 and William, and Sam Harris. Other people living there were Robert Wilson, wife and two sons; Albert Gallatin and son; Mr. Hiram, wife and two daughters, Sophronia and Susan; Mr. Lytle, wife and daughter; Mr. Brewster and son; Mr. Evans and wife; Dr. Wright and wife; Dr. Gallagher; Mr. Peoples and wife; Mr. Farmer and family; Mr. Mansfield and five negroes; one negro man, Joe, servant of W. B. Travis; John W. Moore; the Mexican Alcalde. The young men were Messrs. Richardson, Dodson, Wilcox, Hoffman, and Lucian Hopson. The boys were James Brewster, and John, George, and Isaac Iiams, stepsons of Dave Harris. There was also a Mr. Ray. There was a steam sawmill at the mouth of Bray's Bayou; it belonged to Robert Wilson and W. P. Harris. Mr. Hoffman was engineer.” Mr. Mr. Choate is mentioned as living “below the town on Vince's Bayou. He had five daughters. He was the most popular man in Texas.” Thomas Earl lived below the town on Buffalo Bayou. He had a wife, two sons and four daughters, all grown. “The Vince brothers, Allen, William, Robert, and Richard, lived at the bridge on Vince's Bayou. Allen Vince was a widower. He had two sons. Their sister, Miss Susan, kept house for them. Mr. Bronson and wife lived at the mouth of Buffalo Bayou.” A Mr. Doby is also mentioned as living in this neighborhood.
May, 1834—After mentioning the engagement at Harrisburg of Mr. David Henson, as a school teacher for the settlement, near Oyster Creek, (Stafford's Point), the names of some immigrants who arrived by schooner from New Orleans are given as follows from memory: Clinton Harris, son of John R. Harris, deceased; Mr. Mann, wife, and two stepsons, Flournoy Hunt; and Sam Allen; Mr. Pruitt and two daughters; and Mr. Kokernut and wife, young married people, were among them. “Mr. Kokernut was German, his wife French.”
After leaving the Cartwright farm near Harrisburg. Dr. Rose moved his family to Stafford's Point, where under date of January 1, 1834, their “four near neighbors, Messrs. West, Bell, William Neal, and C. C. Dyer,” are mentioned, and the statement made that “Neal and Dyer married sisters, the daughters of Mr. Stafford, and there were two brothers, Harvey and Adam Stafford, both grown.” There is also mention of the family of Mrs. Roark, widow of Elijah Roark, who was murdered by Indians near San Antonio in 1829, as neighbors at Stafford's Point. The children of these families, besides four young men, Leo and Jackson Roark, Mr. Calders and Harvey Stafford, made up the school. Stafford's Point was about fifteen miles from Harrisburg, where there were stores, a sawmill, a blacksmith's shop, a shoemaker's shop, with other accessories of a town, and thither the settlers usually went to celebrate July 4th, with a barbecue and ball. These occasions drew all together for a big public frolic—Mr. Choate played the violin, and his services were much in demand at Harrisburg. DeWitt Clinton, son of John R. Harris, deceased, had come out with his mother, Mrs. Jane Harris in 1833, and opened a store, and the Indians came here to sell their buffalo, bear, and deer skins, blankets and beadwork. In the winter of 1835, two or three hundred of them, men, women and children from the Falls of the Brazos (Waco), camped in the neighborhood, and remained until they had sold their wares. At this time, the Kleberg family (Germans) were at Harrisburg, and Mrs. Rosa Kleberg, but recently arrived from Germany, had an experience, which she related to me a few years before her death. The family had rented a house and were moving into it, each carrying a portion of the baggage. Mrs. Kleberg was alone and had just thrown down a big bundle, when a tall half-naked Indian, the first she had ever seen, approached. Seeing a loaf of bread on a table in the middle of the room, he advanced, deposited on the table two big venison hams, which had been slung over his shoulders, picked up the bread, called out “swap!” “swap!” and stalked away. Mrs. Kleberg having retreated behind the table, stood in speechless astonishment, overjoyed that his one-sided bargain had been followed by so speedy a departure.
In April, 1835, the Harris Reminiscences note the arrival of several English families of immigrants, among them the Pages and Adkinses; Mrs. Brown, a Scotchwoman, with a son and daughter, was at Allen Vince's place at the time of the “Runaway Scrape.” This event, as its title indicates, created a wide dispersion of former residents in this section; the homes of most of them were destroyed, and not a few of them returned to the United States, or sought homes in other sections of Texas.
The first account of a school in this municipality, although it is highly probably that there had been schools taught before at Harrisburg, is contained in Mrs. Harris's reminiscences. The diary, dated May, 1834, makes mention of the engagement at Harrisburg of David Henson, as a teacher for the settlement near Oyster Creek (Stafford's Point). The school house, built of logs, was located about halfway between the homes of Dr. Rose and Mr. Dyer. It had been previously used as a blacksmith shop, was without windows, had an open doorway, and the floor was of puncheons. The teacher, an Irishman, was capable, but school books were scarce, and the multiplication table inscribed on a pasteboard bandbox belonging to Mrs. Rose, furnished an arithmetic lesson. The school did well until the arrest of D. W. C. Harris of Harrisburg, and Andrew Briscoe at Anahuac in June, 1835, threw the neighborhood into such a state of excitement that it was impossible to continue its session.
It was not until July of the following year that the settlers having returned to their homes (after the battle of San Jacinto), engaged a teacher named Bennet, also an Irishman, to reopen this school, with an attendance of eight pupils, children of the same families; but the four young men were no longer numbered among the pupils. This school lasted only about six months, when the teacher returned to the United States. The country was too much disturbed by rumors of invasion for the establishment of any school at this time.
The first teachers in Houston, according to Mrs. Dilue Harris, who was a pupil, were Mrs. Sawyer, who married a Mr. Lockhart, and Mr. Hambleton, whose school she attended in 1838. A Mrs. Robertson was also a teacher at Houston in the early forties.
271. These names are obtained from Lester G. Bugbee's “The Old Three Hundred,” in The Quarterly, I, 108-117.
272. Burke's Texas Almanac, 1879, p. 88.
273. Ibid., 78.
274. Ibid., 79-80.
275. Ibid., 88.
276. “The fatality of yellow fever this season in New Orleans has deprived this colony of one of its citizens, who for the enterprise which characterized him, was not only a very useful and important member of this young community, but one to whom it is indebted for the undertaking of a very valuable and considerable branch of mechanical industry.
“In the death of Mr. John R. Harris, the colony has lost an enterprising citizen, and his friends have been bereaved of one whose loss will not be easily replaced. He died on Friday evening, the 21st of August last, in that city after five days illness.” From the second number of the Texas Gazette (Saturday, October 3, 1829) edited and published at San Felipe de Austin by Goodwin Brown Cotton. The copy from which this is taken is owned by Mrs. Mila Morris of Houston.
277. Family tradition says that John R. Harris heard causes, or complaints, which from time to time arose among the settlers, seated under a magnificent magnolia tree, which stood on the point of land where Buffalo Bayou receives the waters of Bray's Bayou and is now occupied by Weld and Neville's Compress and warehouse. His first residence was on this point, then a most picturesque spot, and his sawmill on the opposite bank of Bray's Bayou. The store and first settlements were in this vicinity and southward down Buffalo Bayou to a point where the Bayou makes a sharp curve. This sawmill site was used for a sawmill by his brothers, Wm. P. and David Harris, and Robert Wilson, at the time of the Texas Revolution, and afterwards by his sons, DeWitt Clinton, Lewis Birdsall, and John Birdsall Harris, at different times up to 1867, and the ground is still owned by his granddaughter.
278. As original business documents of that early period are rare, the following from the papers of John R. Harris in my possession is copied in full, as probably the first cotton contract of any magnitude in Texas:
“The following contract is this day made and agreed to by the parties hereunto subscribed (to wit), Jared E. Groce of the first part, and John R. Harris and Zeno Phillips of the other part. The said Jared E. Groce, promises to deliver to the parties of the second part on application, all the cotton he has by him at the time, say from ninety to one hundred bails, at ten dollars and twenty-five cents per hundred weight, for the following consideration and payments, (to wit), the said John R. transfers to the said Jared E. nine hundred and sixty-five dollars and 30 ¼ in final payments on W. S. Hall, to pay to said Groce, one thousand dollars in Bank bills on the United States Bank, or its branches, on or before the first day of June next or sooner, should a return be made sooner from the sales of said cotton.
“The balance of the price of the cotton is to be paid on the 10th day of January, 1830, in Mexican Eagle Dollars or its equivalent in other money for the payment of which the parties of the second part will bind themselves in a promissory note so soon as the weights are ascertained.
“March 27th, 1829. At the request of Jared E. Groce, party to this instrument, I signed it.
“Samuel M. Williams
“John R. Harris
“Zeno Phillips
“In the town of Austin, this 27th March 1829, I, Joseph White, Constitutional Alcalde of this Jurisdietion, do certify that the foregoing instrument of contract was made [two words torn] parties in my presence and executed by them before me, Jared E. Groce requesting Samuel M. Williams to sign it for him on account of physical inability to write, his arm being erippled. In witness of which I sign it with two assisting witnesses day and date aforesaid.
“J. White,
“Ass't Witness—Ira Ingram
“Ass't Witness—H. H. League”
In the inventory of “debts, money, merchandise and property real and personal of John R. Harris field at San Felipe de Austin, October 2nd, 1829,” a copy of which is in my possession, were the names of a great many colonists, carried on his books, with whom he had transacted business at Harrisburg and vicinity, and also at Bell's Landing, the most important trading point on the Brazos river. They are made a part of this record merely to show the extent of the business carried on by him at this early date in Texas colonial history.Names of those who traded at Harrisburg and neighborhood were as follows: Samuel C. Hirams, James Knight, Luke Moore, P. Singleton, Moses Shipman, Stephen Nicholson, James B. Bailey, Elijah Roark, R. Hicks, H. L. Shropshire, A. J. James, Silas Jones, Michael Young, Jonathan Scott, James Standeferd, Carey D. Gary, William Stafford, Thomas Sherman, C. Nash, Dan G. Bayles, John D. Taylor, H. Chevy, Knight and White, William Progtor, Anson Taylor, C. Dyer, M. Bundwich, Jesse Thompson, William J. Harris, R. M. Cartwright, T. Newman, J. Shaw, Thomas Earle, George Brown, Elijah Allcorn, Allan Martin, John Allcorn, William Andrus, Miles Allen, Lewis Boatwright, Daniel E. Bagly, Enoch Brunson, William Brooks, Francis Biggum, John Bird, Jesse H. Cartwright, Cartwright and Laughlin, Phillip Coonse, Lemuel Crawford, Peter D. Buffield, William D. Dunlap, Clement Dyer, Archalam Dodson, William Eaton, John Frank, Isaac Foster, Graves Fulshear, Alexander Farmer, Philo Fairchild, John Gates, Andrew Greg, Gannes Jesus, William J. John Hall, George B. Hall, David Harris, John Hamlin, Humphrey Jackson, Tabitha Iiams, Frances W. Johnson, Samuel Isaacs, John Jones, John Horse Jones, Frederick Jackson, John Iiams, John Jones (workman), John Kelly, Elizabeth Kuykendall, Hugh Kilgore, Nathaniel Lynch, William Laughlin, James Lynch, Joseph Lial, Rice S. Murray, Margaret McCormack, James McLaughlin, John McNutt, John Munroe, Samuel B. Miller, James Mars, Henry W. Munson, John Montgomery, Captain Micks, Colman Nash, Stephen Nicholson, Phelin Newman, Daniel Norton, John Owen, William Pettus, J. C. Peyton, Joshua Parker, Andrew Roach, John Randon, Andrew Robinson, Benjamin Reader, Smith Robinson, Leo Roark, William J. Russell, William Scott, Charles M. Smith, Moses Shipman, Daniel Shipman, William Swail, Joseph Sular, Andrew Smith, Ione Shaw, Ezekiel Thomas, Lewis Thompson, Anson Taylor, Jacob Thomas, Henry Tisherwester, David Sally, William Troboz, Joseph Urban, Jesse Vance, William &Allen Vince, Richard Vince, Walter C. White, White and Harris, S. M. Williams, John W. Williamson, William K. Wilson, Samuel Whitting, John A. Williams, George White, Wiley B. White, Matlida Wilbourn, Charles C. P. Welsh.
Names of those who traded at Bell's Landing, on the Brazos River, near West Columbia: Henry Williams, Robert Brotherton, Thomas Slaughter, William Roe, David Hamilton, Francis F. Wells, William Barret, Saml Chann, William C. Carson, William Robertson, Geo. Robinson, I. C. Parton, R. H. Williams, P. Andrew, P. Burnett, John Jones, S. Williams, M. B. Nickols, Saml. More, Jas. Ray, N. Smithwick, Green DeWitt, Freeman George, Nicholas George, James Stringfellow, Alexander Calvert, Josiah H. Bell, James B. Bailey, Zeno Phillips, Solomon Williams, Jefferson George, Robert H. Williams, Jesse Thompson, Joseph H. Polley, William Selkirk, Noah Smithwick, Martin Varner, William Stafford, John Alley, William, John, and George Hall, Chas. Cavenia, Joseph Sampierre, Saml. Low, William Chase, James Danly, Saml May, May &Low, David McCormack, Mrs. Alsbury, Isaac House, Saml. C. Chance, Lawrence Ramey, John C. Keller, Jas. N. Phillips, Cornelius Smith, Thomas J. Pryor, G. B. Jameson, H. Chrisman, Smith Bailey, Henry Jones, Daniel Shipman, Thomas Newman, Knight &White, Silvester Bowin, L. Smither, Harrison Williams, James Pevehouse, Thomas Barnett, James Smith, John B. McNutt, Solomon Bowlin, Geo. S. Penticost, Geo. Thrasher, Edward Robertson, Alexander E. Hodge, Henry E. Brown, John McNeal, Freeman George, A. T. Knauff, Smith Robertson, John Lawrence, James Bailey, Samuel Pharr, Walter C. White, Mrs. Bradly, George Huff, O. H. Stout, John Austin, Ephraim Fuqua, John McLaren, James Moore, John Bradley, Wm. Morton, Arche Hodge, William Barnett, Allan Larison, P. Andrew, Henry Williams, James Norton, James Hinds, T. Farmer, John Gates, Hinton Cartes, Wiley Martin, Jesse Vance, Thos. B. Bell, Joseph Mims, I. C. Peyton, Robert Spears, Jesse H. Cartwright, Nichols McNutt, W. D. C. Hall, William Barrett, Peter Duffield, W. S. Hall, Eli Mitchell, George W. Brown, John W. Moore, White &Harris, Israel Waters, William K. Wilson, William Scate, Capt. Wm. Roberts, George Williams, Mrs. Powell, Francis M. Johnson, Wm. Vince, Wm. J. Russell, T. K. Murrey, Mathew Roberts, Judge Tunnell, David Carpenter, T. Alsbury, Job. Williams, Philo Fairchild, Thomas Slaughter, Saml. Highsmith, James Thompson, Andrew Robinson, Jas. Knight, Jas. W. Woodson, Saml. Kenneda, Wm. Kingston, O. Jones, Richardson &Davis, Isaac Vandoren, Border, Saml. O. Pettus, A. Kimble.
279. The following items from the Texas Gazette cast some light on the economic development of the county: “We take pleasure in announcing to the inhabitants of Austin's colony, that the entire Machinery for the Steam Saw Mill at Harrisburg has arrived in Trinity Bay from New Orleans, in the schooner `Ann Elizabeth.'
“Much credit is due Mr. David Harris, brother of, and administrator of the estate of the late John R. Harris, deceased, the original proprietor of the Mill, for his perseverance in furthering the undertaking, and we hope ere long of hearing of its being in active operation, when our citizens will be able to supply themselves with building timber at a low rate, and at the same time the present proprietors will be amply remunerated for their trouble and expense.” March 13, 1830.
“June 5, 1830, a postoffice has been established at Brazoria, and we understand that another will be established at Harrisburg in a short time.”
July 22, 1830. “The Steam Saw Mill at Harrisburg of Messrs. Wilson and Harris is in operation and works very well.”July 31, 1830: “Sloop Alabama, Captain Lovejoy, arrived at Harrisburg from New Orleans, will leave for Matamoras with cargo of plank from the saw mill.”
On July 10th, 1830, an advertisement states that “Enoch Brinson of San Jacinto Bay has opened a house of private entertainment, also a blacksmith shop.” And on October 3, the same years appears the card of:
“G. B. Jameson, Attorney and Counselor at Law—San Felipe de Austin.” G. B. Jameson afterwards became a soldier of the Revolution, and perished in the Alamo after having sent out to General Houston important communications and plans of that fortress.
280. The reminiscences of Mrs. Dilue Harris are based largely upon a journal kept by her father, Dr. P. W. Rose, and may be considered a reliable source of information as to settlers known to her family, who lived at Harrisburg or had their homes near enough to make that town their trading place and social center from April 30, 1833, to April, 1836, when the Mexicans burned the town and the settlements were broken up. See The Quarterly, 88-126, 155-172.
281. Sarah was a stepdaughter of David Harris, he having married the widow of John Iiams, who left three sons and one daughter.
How to cite:
Looscan, Adele B., "HARRIS COUNTY, 1822-1845 ", Volume 018, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 195 - 207. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v018/n2/article_3.html
[Accessed Sun Nov 23 2:57:51 CST 2008]
