HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Abraham Darst

Damon, Brazoria County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Emigrated to Texas from Missouri in 1827 as an Austin colonist. Participated in the Battle of Velasco, 1832. Five of his sons were in the Army of Texas in 1836. Born May 14, 1786; died in December, 1833. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Abraham Darst came to Mexican Texas from Missouri in 1827 as one of Stephen F. Austin's colonists, part of the first wave of Anglo-American settlement on the Brazos. He took up arms in the 1832 Battle of Velasco, an early clash with Mexican authority, and though he died in 1833, five of his sons served in the Army of Texas during the revolution of 1836.

Why it matters

The Darst family embodies the settler generation of Austin's colony, whose grievances and militia service carried directly into the war for Texas independence.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • ยท Abraham Darst

Related events

  • ยท Battle of Velasco

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionMilitary & WartimeFrontier HistoryMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Samuel Damon

West Columbia, TX

Massachusetts-born Samuel Damon came to Texas in 1831 and joined the fight for independence, serving as a wagonmaster for Stephen F. Austin at the Siege of Bexar and famously taking the mission bells to be melted into bullets for the rebel cause. He aided Sam Houston's 1836 campaign and later earned a Republic of Texas land grant. Settling in Brazoria County, he gave his name to the mineral-rich Damon Mound and worked half a century as the town brickmaker.

Brown-Beard Cemetery

Richmond, TX

Begun as the Pentecost Graveyard in the Big Creek settlement, this cemetery dates to at least 1841 and the burial of George S. Pentecost, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists. It lies on land granted to another Old 300 colonist, Samuel Pharr, and holds Texas Revolution veterans, Confederate soldiers, and the Pentecost, Beard, and Brown families whose intermarriage gave the ground its name.

Phillips Family Cemetery

West Columbia vicinity, TX

Zeno Phillips was one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred," the first legal Anglo-American colonists in Texas, and he and his brothers took up land here and served in the Republic of Texas Army. The cemetery began in 1835 with the burials of Zeno and his brother John. Later generations of the family were laid to rest at Waverly Place before the land passed out of Phillips hands in 1887.