The Griffith Homesite and Cemetery

The Griffith Homesite and Cemetery. . , 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.