The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953 Page: 40
641 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
who lived opposite the junction of Buffalo Bayou with the San
Jacinto River, divided a portion of his land into city blocks
separated by thoroughfares and named the plat Lynchburg. Not
many persons, however, shared Lynch's enthusiasm for the spot,
and few if any purchased lots.18 In 1835 James Morgan purchased
sixteen hundred acres on what had been variously called Rightor's,
Hunter's, and Clopper's Point, and since 1835 Morgan's Point.1o
In October of that year, several New Yorkers and others organ-
ized the New Washington Association for the purposes of acquir-
ing lands in Texas; procuring laborers from Bermuda and else-
where; building hotels, stores, and warehouses; operating ves-
sels; and vending goods and provisions. Morgan became the
general agent of this group, and he laid out on Morgan's Point
a town named New Washington.s It never was much more than
a name, despite Morgan's energy and the cleverness of its prime
mover, Samuel Swartwout, who is known principally in American
history for having betrayed Aaron Burr's imperial scheme and
for having stolen a million dollars from the United States Custom
House in New York City.
In addition to these three platted towns, there were fairly
heavy concentrations of settlers in their immediate neighborhoods
as well as in what is now Baytown, along the upper, reaches of
Spring Creek especially around the home of Abram Roberts
that was called New Kentucky, on the Brazos opposite the present
town of Richmond, and around the present town of Stafford.
The area was on the periphery of Austin's Colony. Few if any
events of especial significance happened within the Harrisburg
municipality previous to 1835, although its residents apparently
had the distinction of being more quarrelsome than the inhabit-
ants of those areas which lay more immediately under Austin's
paternalistic eye. For the most part they were illiterate or at best
semi-literate. No printing press had been seen within the mu-
Muir, "First Steam Sawmill Had Gear Trouble," Gulf Coast Lumberman, March
1, 1952, p. 33-
18A. C. Gray (ed.), From Virginia to Texas, 1835, Diary of Col. Wm. F. Gray ...
(Houston, 9og9), 146.
19Nicholas Clopper to Morgan, April 4, 1835, in James Morgan Papers (MSS.
in Rosenberg Library, Galveston).
20Articles of association, October 23, 1835, in Deed Records of Harris County,
N, 587-589.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953, periodical, 1953; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101145/m1/58/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.