The Griffith Homesite and Cemetery

Duane's take

The way the marker at the Griffith Homesite and Cemetery tells it, here's how that ground came to hold so much history. It starts, as a great many Texas stories do, with Stephen F. Austin's colony — and with a man named Elias R.

Wightman, a surveyor who'd done his share of work for Austin's first colony. In 1828, Wightman headed back to the United States to recruit new settlers for what would become Austin's second colony. He made his way to New York, and there he found two willing souls: his own sister Esther, born in 1788, and her husband Noah Griffith, born in 1786.

Whatever Wightman said to persuade them, it worked. In the early part of 1829, the Griffiths arrived at the Texas port of Matagorda — a port that Wightman himself had platted. They received a land grant at this very site from the Mexican government, and in 1831 they moved here with their three sons and built a log cabin on the property.

A family planting roots in new ground, one hewn timber at a time. Now those three sons — each one a story unto himself. The oldest, Leroy Alonzo, born in 1821, served in local government before eventually pulling up stakes and moving to Salado in Bell County.

And there, in 1873, he helped organize the first Texas grange movement — an alliance of farmers, the marker tells us, a thing that mattered to the people working this land. The second son, Joshua Delos, born in 1825, he's buried here on this ground. He operated one of the first sawmills in the area.

The kind of man who built the infrastructure of a frontier quietly, without much fanfare, and then stayed. But it's the third son, John Maynard — born in 1828 — whose marriage carries the weight that stops you cold. John Maynard Griffith married a woman named Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson.

And Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson was known, far and wide, as the babe of the Alamo. Because she and her mother Suzanna Dickinson had survived the 1836 battle. That child who came through that terrible March morning grew up, and she married into this family, and her name is bound up now with this place.

Noah Griffith died in 1853. Esther in 1863. They were buried twenty feet from Angelina Elizabeth, right in front of their homesite.

The same ground where they'd built that log cabin, where they'd raised those three sons, where the Mexican government once handed them a fresh start. The cemetery is still used today for the burial of family members and friends. Some places just hold people.

This is one of them.

What the marker says

Elias R. Wightman, a surveyor in Stephen F. Austin's first colony, returned to the United States in 1828 to recruit additional settlers. Two colonists who joined him in New York were his sister Esther (1788-1863) and her husband Noah Griffith (1786-1853). In the early part of 1829 they arrived at the Texas port of Matagorda, platted earlier by Wightman. As settlers of Austin's second colony, the Griffiths received a land grant at this site from the Mexican government. They moved here with their three sons in 1831 and built a log cabin on the property. Their oldest son, Leroy Alonzo (1821-1883), served in local government before moving to Salado in Bell County. There he helped organize the first Texas grange movement, an alliance of farmers, in 1873. Another son, Joshua Delos (1825-1887), buried here, operated one of the first sawmills in the area. The third son, John Maynard (b. 1828), married Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson, who was known as "the babe of the Alamo" because she and her mother Suzanna Dickinson had survived the 1836 battle. Noah and Esther Griffith were buried 20 feet from her in front of their homesite. The cemetery is used for the burial of family members and friends.