DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about William Scott and the place he called Point Pleasant. Now settle in, because this one's got roots that run deep — all the way from Virginia to the banks of the San Jacinto. William Scott was born in 1784, a Virginia man through and through — a planter, a merchant, a stockraiser.
The kind of fellow who couldn't quite sit still, because about 1806 he packed up and relocated to Kentucky. Then, in the early 1820s, he and his family moved again, this time briefly to Louisiana. You might start to see a pattern here.
William Scott was a man with his eye on the horizon. And then came Texas. In 1824, Scott brought his family west with Stephen F.
Austin's colonists — the ones history would come to call the Old Three Hundred. That's a name that carries weight in Texas, and Scott carried it right along with him. He received a headright grant of land on the east bank of the San Jacinto River, and on that ground he built himself a home.
He named it Point Pleasant. A man who'd moved that many times knows something about the value of a pleasant place to land. Point Pleasant wasn't just a home, though.
It became a stopping place — a crossroads for the revolutionary era. Lorenzo de Zavala passed through, the man who would become the first vice-president of the Republic of Texas. Emily Austin Bryan Perry came through too, sister of Stephen F.
Austin himself. Not a bad guest list for a homestead on the San Jacinto. When the push for Texas independence from Mexico came to a head in 1835, Scott didn't watch from the porch.
He served as captain of the Lynchburg Volunteers, a local militia company. A great supporter of Texas independence, the marker calls him, and by then he'd more than earned the title. Scott had married a Virginia woman, the former Mary Hanna, and together they had five children.
He died in 1837. Mary followed in 1840. And Point Pleasant — that home he'd named and built and filled with the comings and goings of history — passed to their daughter, Sarah Scott Williams.
She held it until her death in 1860, when the property was sold out of the family. And then, sometime after the Civil War, Point Pleasant met its end. A hurricane, it's believed.
The Gulf Coast doesn't ask permission, and it doesn't leave forwarding addresses. William Scott had carried his family from Virginia to Kentucky to Louisiana to Texas, built a home that hosted the makers of a republic, raised a militia company, and left a name on a piece of ground beside the San Jacinto. The house is gone.
The marker remains. That's how Texas keeps score.
What the marker says
A native of Virginia, William Scott (1784-1837) was a planter, merchant, and stockraiser in his native state and in Kentucky, where he relocated about 1806. He and his family moved briefly to Louisiana in the early 1820s before coming to Texas with Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists in 1824. He received a headright grant of land at this site on the east bank of the San Jacinto River and named the home he built here Point Pleasant. A great supporter of Texas independence from Mexico, Scott served in 1835 as captain of the Lynchburg Volunteers, a local militia company. Point Pleasant was a stopping place for many revolutionary-era pioneers, including Lorenzo de Zavala, first vice-president of the Republic of texas; and Emily Austin Bryan Perry, sister of Stephen F. Austin. Married in Virginia to the former Mary Hanna, Scott was the father of five children. Following his death in 1837 and Mary's death in 1840, Point Pleasant was inherited by their daughter, Sarah Scott Williams. After her death in 1860 the property was sold out of the family. Point Pleasant is believed to have been destroyed by a hurricane sometime after the Civil War.