Site Of Landmark Campbell's Bayou
Texas City, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settled 1821 by privateer James Campbell (1791-1856), U. S. Navy veteran, War of 1812, who after discharge was lieutenant and close friend of buccaneer Jean Lafitte, operating out of Galveston (then called Campeche). In Karankawa Indian rituals about 1817, Mary Sabinal (1795-1884) became Campbell's bride. When Lafitte left Texas in 1821, Campbell pleased his wife by settling here as a rancher. Community remained until its second destruction by hurricane, 1915. Graves of the Campbells and many other early Texans are in cemetery at Campbell's Bayou.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1821 the privateer and War of 1812 veteran James Campbell — a lieutenant and close friend of the buccaneer Jean Lafitte at Galveston — put the sea behind him to settle here as a rancher. He had earlier taken a bride, Mary Sabinal, in Karankawa ceremony, and the couple raised their community on this coastal ground. The settlement endured until a hurricane destroyed it a second time in 1915, and the Campbells lie with other early Texans in the nearby cemetery.
Why it matters
The site captures the strange, porous world of the early Gulf coast, where privateers, Native peoples, and would-be ranchers built fleeting communities on the edge of a new nation.
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Related people
- · James Campbell
- · Mary Sabinal
- · Jean Lafitte
Themes & tags
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