Morton-McCloy House
Richmond, Fort Bend County, Texas
Marker Inscription
"Old 300" settlers William Morton and his family operated Morton's Ferry here in the 1820s. Hand-hewn braced-frame construction suggests that at its core this house was built by the Mortons in the mid-1830s. Altered to its present appearance between 1873-1904 during the ownership of the Dr. John McCloy family, the L-plan house features a 3-bay front porch, single door entry with transom, and gable roof. Later owners included the families of Edgar Andrus and A. W. Whatley. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
William Morton was among the "Old 300" — the first families granted land in Stephen F. Austin's colony — and operated Morton's Ferry here in the 1820s. The core of this house, built with hand-hewn braced-frame construction, dates to the mid-1830s, making it a rare survivor from Texas's earliest Anglo settlement. Later owners, notably the Dr. John McCloy family, reshaped it between 1873 and 1904 into the L-plan home seen today.
Why it matters
Few buildings connect so directly to the Old 300 and the founding generation of Anglo colonization in Mexican Texas.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1820s, the land that would become Fort Bend County was the far edge of Mexican Texas. Mexico had only just won its independence from Spain, and the new government let the empresario Stephen F. Austin bring American families into a colony along the Brazos and Colorado rivers. The first wave of those settlers, around three hundred households, went down in Texas memory as the "Old 300."
Rivers were both highway and obstacle on that frontier. The Brazos was wide, muddy and prone to sudden floods, and there were no bridges. Anyone moving people, livestock or trade goods across it depended on a ferry. A family that ran a reliable crossing held one of the most useful jobs in the young colony.
The mid-1830s, when the Mortons apparently built the core of this house, were turbulent years. Tension between Anglo colonists and the Mexican government was rising toward the Texas Revolution of 1835–36. The house survived that upheaval and the Republic of Texas that followed. It then lived on through statehood, the Civil War, Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, as Richmond grew into a county seat on the river the Mortons once ferried.
People & events
William Morton and his family were among the Old 300, the founding households of Austin's colony. Here, on the Brazos at what became Richmond, they ran Morton's Ferry in the 1820s. In practice that meant pulling travelers, wagons and animals across a river that could turn dangerous almost overnight. A ferry like theirs was often the place where news got passed along, deals got made and strangers became neighbors.
The house itself holds clues about its makers. Its frame is hand-hewn and braced: heavy timbers squared by axe and adze and joined to stand for generations. That method suggests the Mortons built the heart of the home in the mid-1830s, which would make it one of the very few buildings still standing from the colony's founding generation.
The house kept changing with its owners. Between 1873 and 1904, Dr. John McCloy's family gave it the look you see today: an L-shaped plan, a three-bay front porch, a single front door topped by a transom window, and a gable roof. Later it passed to the families of Edgar Andrus and A. W. Whatley. Each household left this old frontier dwelling a little different, and the state recognized its layered history by naming it a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1995.
Its place in the American story
The Old 300 were the start of one of the most consequential migrations in American history. Austin's colony drew settlers from the United States into Mexican territory. Within a little over a decade their numbers and grievances helped bring on the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas, and eventually Texas's annexation to the United States. That chain of events reshaped the map of North America.
Most of that first generation's homes have vanished. Log cabins rotted, frame houses burned, and towns rebuilt over them. A house whose bones may go back to an Old 300 family is a rare physical tie to that story, a place where you can stand inside the decisions and labor that came before the famous battles and declarations.
The Morton-McCloy House also shows how American history piles up in one spot. A frontier ferry family, a Gilded Age doctor's household and later owners all shaped the same building. Its walls hold the whole arc from Mexican colony to settled Texas town.
If you visit
Look closely at the house's shape and details. The L-plan, the three-bay porch, the transom over the single front door and the simple gable roof are mostly the work of the McCloy era. Somewhere beneath that later face is the hand-hewn frame believed to date to the Mortons. Try to picture the plainer frontier house hidden inside.
Then think about the river. The Mortons made their living ferrying people across the Brazos here, and the river still defines Richmond's geography. If you can, make your way to a spot where you can see the Brazos. Its width and current make the importance of a ferry obvious.
Richmond fits easily into a road trip southwest of Houston. You can pair it with other Old 300 and Texas Revolution sites along the lower Brazos to trace how Anglo settlement spread up and down the river valley. Please respect private property and view historic homes from public spaces unless they're open to visitors.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William Morton
- · John McCloy
- · Edgar Andrus
- · A. W. Whatley
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
City of Richmond
Richmond, TX
Settled in 1822 by members of Stephen F. Austin's colony as 'Fort Settlement,' Richmond was formally laid out in 1837 and named for Richmond, Virginia, becoming county seat in 1838. Among its residents were Jane Long, the 'Mother of Texas,' and scout Erastus 'Deaf' Smith, both buried nearby, and the arrival of Texas's first railroad in 1855 brought new prosperity. Later the town saw saloon-smasher Carry Nation run a hotel and the violent 1889 Jaybird-Woodpecker feud climax in a shootout on Courthouse Square.
Rosenberg
Rosenberg, TX
A nameless shipping point had clung to the Brazos River since about 1830, but the modern town was born of the railroad. When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe crossed an older line here in 1880 and platted a townsite in 1883, Rosenberg took shape between the river and the tracks—named for a Galveston financier who backed the line. Promoters like R. T. Mulcahy built its schools and businesses, and 20th-century oil and sulphur strikes cemented it as a trade center.
Town of Fulshear
Fulshear, TX
The land here was granted in 1824 to Churchill Fulshear, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists. His son, a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, built a four-story brick mansion in the 1850s and bred and raced horses; his protégé John Huggins went on to train the first American horse to win the English Derby. The town itself was platted in 1890 when the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad arrived, quickly becoming a local trade center.
Stafford's Point
Stafford, TX
One of Stephen F. Austin's original "Old 300" colonists, William J. Stafford received a large land grant in 1824 and founded Stafford's Point, bringing his family and enslaved workers from a Louisiana sugar plantation. By the 1830s he had a sugar mill and cotton gin running, until Santa Anna's army camped and pillaged here during the 1836 Runaway Scrape. The settlement rebounded, gained Texas's first railroad in 1853, and later welcomed Sicilian immigrant families before being absorbed into the town of Stafford.