History

Haller once represented county in legislature

    Nathan H. Haller, who represented Brazoria and Matagorda counties in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth legislatures, was born in slavery in Charleston, South Carolina, on July 8, 1845. His owner took him to Walker County, Texas, probably before 1860.

Cook early colonist, postmaster on Cook’s Island

   James Cook, a partner with William B. DeWees as one of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred families, was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1797 and was probably in Texas by 1820.   On August 3, 1824, he and DeWees received title to a sitio of land now in Colorado County.

CJ Wildman worked to develop early Palacios

   EDITOR’S NOTE: C.J. Wildman arrived in Palacios in 1904 as the then-townsite’s resident manager. He was revered in his time and in his passing at the age of 38.   The following is the obituary that ran in the Palacios Beacon in 1917. The obituary tells much about Wildman’s contributions.

San Jacinto veteran returned home to serve Matagorda County

   Daniel D. D. Baker (1806–1843), San Jacinto soldier and Texas legislator, was born in Massachusetts in 1806 and moved to Texas in February 1831.   In May 1831 he was granted a quarter league in Stephen F. Austin’s second colony in what is now Wharton County.

Jamison served as postmaster at Caney, Sugar Land

   Thomas Jamison, one of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundredcolonists, was probably born in Tennessee in 1792 or 1796.   He was in Texas as early as August 16, 1823, when he voted in the election that made James Cummins alcalde.

Holt’s extensive acreage sold for $11.11

   Samuel Hoit, early colonist, was born in Chester, New Hampshire, on February 10, 1781, the son of Zabez and Abigail (Hasseltine) Hoit.   Before moving to Texas in 1830, he was a justice of the peace and postmaster in Port Gibson, Mississippi.

Freed slave Ino Hudgins founded settlement named for him

   Hudgins (Hudgins Settlement) is near the site of the Robert H. Williams plantation in a section of the rich Caney Creek bottomlands once known as plantation row, a mile north of Farm Road 457 and eight miles east of Bay City in east central Matagorda County.