DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker's the word on this one, and here's how I tell it. Now, every town worth its salt has got a beginning, and Matagorda's beginning has a name. Two names, actually.
Benjamin Wightman and Esther Randall Wightman. The very first burials in Matagorda Cemetery. That right there ought to tell you something about how deep these roots go.
Benjamin and Esther were natives of Connecticut, which means they had already traveled a considerable stretch of this earth before their story in Texas even started. For a time, they made their home in Wightman Town, Herkimer County, New York. A town with their name on it.
Not a bad legacy. But they weren't done yet. In 1828, Benjamin and Esther joined a colony and made their way here, to Matagorda.
They came with that colony because of their son, Elias R. Wightman. And Elias was no small figure in this part of the world.
He was the grantee of the Matagorda town league, granted by the Republic of Mexico. The man had a hand in laying the very foundation of this place. Now, how did the Wightmans make the journey?
They came aboard the Little Zoe. And the Little Zoe was not just any vessel. She was the first sailing vessel ever to enter the port of Matagorda.
The first one. Ever. So you've got a family from Connecticut, who lived in a New York town bearing their name, who sailed on a historic vessel, led here by a son who held a land grant from Mexico, and who came to rest as the first souls buried in Matagorda Cemetery.
Some families just seem to arrive at the beginning of things. The Wightmans were that kind of family.
What the marker says
Parents of Elias R. Wightman, grantee of the Matagorda town league, from Republic of Mexico. Benjamin and Esther Wightman, natives of Connecticut, lived in Wightman Town, Herkimer County, N. Y., before joining (1828) colony brought here by their son of "Little Zoe", the first sailing vessel ever to enter port of Matagorda. (1972)