Henry and Amelia Griffith
Mont Belvieu, Chambers County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The son of Joshua and Jemimah (Hazelton) Griffith, Pennsylvania native Henry Griffith (c. 1797-1869) moved to Johnson's Bayou near Opelousas, Louisiana, about 1819-20. There he met and married Amelia "Milly" Barrow (c. 1802 -?), daughter of Reuben and Mary Jane (Johnson) Barrow, in 1824. Two years later they moved to this area, which was still under Mexican rule at that time. In 1830, the Griffiths received a land grant in the Atascosito District, where they reared their family, farmed the land, and raised cattle and horses. In 1835, Henry Griffith sold 1,047 acres of his land to William Duncan, including the big hill on the property, also known as Barber's Hill, which the deed stated would hence be called "Mont Bellview." More than 50 years later, the area was settled enough to warrant a post office, which was named Mont Belvieu. In 1865, Reconstruction-era governor A. J. Hamilton appointed Henry Griffith as sheriff, and he served until 1868, one year prior to his death. Amelia's death date is not known, and neither of their gravestones survives. Oral histories indicate that their burials are near this site, where the original Griffith house once stood. At least two other members of the family are known to be buried there. As citizens of Texas under the flags of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States and the United States, Henry and Amelia Griffith bore witness to important events and activities in Texas history. Their significance also lies in their early landholding of the property that became the community of Mont Belvieu. (2001)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Pennsylvania native Henry Griffith and his Louisiana-born wife Amelia "Milly" Barrow settled this area in 1826, when it was still under Mexican rule, receiving a land grant in the Atascosito District where they farmed and raised cattle. In 1835 Griffith sold land including the "big hill" that his deed dubbed "Mont Bellview"—the origin of the name Mont Belvieu. Living under the flags of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy, and the United States, Griffith even served as a Reconstruction-era sheriff before his death in 1869.
Why it matters
The Griffiths' story spans the sovereignties that ruled early Texas and marks the founding landholding that grew into a lasting community, a microcosm of the region's turbulent nineteenth century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Henry and Amelia Griffith settled this area in 1826 — a date worth pausing on, because Texas was then neither American nor independent but part of Mexico. The couple were among the earliest Anglo-American families to put down roots in what was still, by any measure, a distant frontier under a foreign flag.
The decades that followed would be among the most turbulent in any region's history. In a single lifetime, the ground the Griffiths farmed would pass under four different sovereign governments. Families like theirs lived through revolution, annexation, civil war, and Reconstruction without ever leaving their own land — the great upheavals of the nineteenth century arriving, in effect, at their doorstep.
This stretch of the Gulf coastal plain, the old Atascosito District, was cattle-and-farming country: open range, timber, and scattered land grants. It was the kind of place where a family's holdings could quietly become the seed of a future town.
People & events
Henry Griffith was a Pennsylvania native, born around 1797, who made his way south to the Opelousas country of Louisiana around 1819. There he met and, in 1824, married Amelia "Milly" Barrow. Two years later the couple moved to this area, then under Mexican rule, and in 1830 received a land grant in the Atascosito District, where they raised their family and ran cattle and horses.
The Griffiths' quiet claim to lasting fame lies in a single deed. In 1835, Henry sold 1,047 acres — including the prominent high ground known as Barber's Hill — to William Duncan, and the deed specified that the hill would thereafter be called "Mont Bellview." More than fifty years later, when the growing community warranted a post office, that name resurfaced, slightly respelled, as Mont Belvieu.
Henry lived through the full sweep of the era. In 1865, the Reconstruction-era governor A. J. Hamilton appointed him sheriff, an office he held until 1868, the year before his death in 1869. Amelia's death date is unknown, and neither of their gravestones survives; oral history places their graves near the site of the original Griffith house, along with at least two other family members.
Its place in the American story
The Griffiths' lives trace, in miniature, the whole contested story of nineteenth-century Texas. As the marker itself puts it, they were citizens under the flags of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States, and the United States — four sovereignties, one family, one piece of ground. Few American stories capture so plainly how fluid and disputed national identity could be on the frontier.
Henry's appointment as sheriff during Reconstruction places him inside one of the most difficult chapters of American governance, when the defeated South was being reincorporated into the Union and local offices were being filled anew. That an early settler took on that role links this quiet homestead to the national drama of rebuilding after the Civil War.
And then there is the name. Every place name carries a history, and Mont Belvieu's runs straight back to a line in an 1835 deed. The community that thrives here today is, in a real sense, still living under a name chosen by one of its founding landholders — a small but vivid example of how the decisions of early settlers echo through the map for generations.
If you visit
Don't come here looking for a preserved house or a marked grave — the original Griffith home is long gone, no gravestones survive, and even the couple's resting place is known only through oral tradition. What you're really visiting is a beginning: the founding landholding of the community that grew into Mont Belvieu.
Stand at the site and let the sweep of it settle in. Somewhere near here a Pennsylvania-born pioneer and his Louisiana-born wife made a home when this was Mexican territory, and lived to see it become part of the United States. The very name on the town's welcome signs was set down in a deed to land that included the hill you're near.
If you're exploring this corner of Chambers County, pair this stop with a look at the surrounding countryside and imagine it as open range and farmland under four different flags. The Griffiths left few physical traces, but they left something more durable — the name and the roots of a community that is still here.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Henry Griffith
- · Amelia Barrow Griffith
- · A. J. Hamilton
Themes & tags
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