Early Deer Park Settlers

Early Deer Park Settlers. . In the 1820s, the first Anglo settlers came to Texas with Empresario Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" families. Though the first city, San Felipe de Austin, was established in nearby Austin County, many of the "Old 300" settled in Harris County, including families and single men moving westward from the United States to acquire land. , The city of Deer Park was established in 1892 near the San Jacinto Battleground by Simeon Henry West, although settlers lived here prior to the official formation of the town. Two of those settlers were Mary Wilson Jackson (d. 1834) and her brother William Wilson (d. 1834), both of Boston Massachusetts., According to deed records, William Wilson owned the granted land (abstract 838), which appears on early Harris County plat maps near the settlement of Crosby, the San Jacinto River and Gum Gully, neighboring "Old 300" settler Humphrey Jackson's property. It is presumed that Mary W. Jackson was associated with Humphrey Jackson's family, based on a judgment recorded in Harris County records in 1852., There is also record of William Wilson purchasing property from the Thomas Earle grant in what became Deer Park near what is now the Shell refinery. Mary W. Jackson was living with the Edward N. Clopper family when she died. William Wilson died several weeks later. The brother and sister were buried on the Wilson property where the original site of the gravestone was discovered by Shell in 1928., The gravestone of Mary Wilson Jackson and William Wilson, no longer in its original location, provides their ages and their dates of death. This serves as a memorial to two of Deer Park's earliest Anglo settlers and as a reminder of the history and traditions of the area.