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Joseph
Grigsby, early
settler and
congressman in
the Republic
of Texas,qv
son of
Nathaniel and
Elizabeth
(Butler)
Grigsby, was
born on Bull
Run in Loudoun
County,
Virginia, on
September 24,
1771. The
family moved
in 1786 to
Kentucky,
where they
settled on a
1,000-acre
land grant on
Beech Fork in
Nelson County.
Grigsby
married Sarah
(Sally)
Mitchell
Graham, whose
family lived
on the
adjoining
grant, on June
28, 1798, in
Bardstown,
Kentucky. They
became the
parents of
thirteen
children.
The
Grigsbys moved
west to
Daviess
County,
Kentucky, in
1817, where
Joseph
developed a
prosperous
1,000-acre
cotton
plantation on
the Green
River. In 1828
they moved to
the Mexican
province of
Texas, where
they settled
first in
Lorenzo de
Zavala'sqv
colony in
Jasper County.
After the
Texas
Revolutionqv
in 1836
Grigsby built
a large
plantation
with slave
labor on his
Neches River
grant in
Jefferson
County and
built the
first
horse-driven
cotton gin in
the area. The
community of
Grigsby's
Bluff became a
busy trading
stop for
side-wheelers
and flatboats
on the Neches.
Grigsby
acquired over
10,000 acres
extending from
the site of
present-day
Port Neches to
Mesquite Point
on Sabine Pass
and became the
wealthiest
person in
Jefferson
County.
He
and three
other
prominent
citizens gave
200 acres of
land and laid
out the
townsite of
Beaumont in
1837. He was
elected
land-office
commissioner
for Jefferson
County and a
representative
in the Second,
Third, and
Fifth
congresses of
the Republic
of Texas. He
died at
Grigsby's
Bluff on
September 13,
1841, and was
buried on his
plantation.
His estate was
administered
by his
son-in-law,
George W.
Smyth,qv
a signer of
the Texas
Declaration of
Independence.qv
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"The
Autobiography
of George W.
Smyth,"
Southwestern
Historical
Quarterly
36 (January
1933). Texas
House of
Representatives,
Biographical
Directory of
the Texan
Conventions
and
Congresses,
1832-1845
(Austin: Book
Exchange,
1941).
Camellia
T. Denys
- Handbook
of Texas
Online,
s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/fgr66.html (accessed
March 3,
2008).
(NOTE: "s.v."
stands for sub
verbo, "under
the word.")
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