Lacy, Martin (1789–1843)

Martin Lacy, early East Texas settler, was born in 1789 in the Pendleton District, South Carolina, the son of William Hughes and Martha (Hewlett) Lacy of Goochland County, Virginia. The family resided for more than a decade where Martin was born before moving to Caldwell County, Kentucky, in the early 1800s. There Lacy married Dorothy (Dolly) Young; they had six children. Around 1820 Lacy and his wife moved to a site in Louisiana near Baton Rouge. They traveled to Texas around 1828 and eventually settled at Lacy's Fort, near the site of present Alto. There Lacy engaged in farming, cattle raising, merchandising, and trade with the Indians. He served as Indian agent for the Mexican government and after the Texas Revolution was appointed Indian agent for the Republic of Texas, in which capacity he accompanied John H. Reagan to deliver President Mirabeau B. Lamar's decree of banishment to Chief Bowl. At one time Lacy lived at Neches Saline in Smith County. He died in Houston County in 1843.