Stafford's Point
Stafford, Fort Bend County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300," William J. Stafford (1764-1840), founded the settlement of Stafford's Point on the 6819.7-acre land grant he received in the winter of 1824. Bringing his family and slaves from his Louisiana sugar plantation, he was planting much land and had a sugar mill and cotton gin in operation by 1834. His manager, Clement c. Dyer (1800-64), a lawyer, political leader, and (later) county judge, married Stafford's daughter, Sarah (1809-74). Early residents of the Stafford's Point community included families of Sam Bell, Elijah Roark, Dr. P. W. Rose, Moses Shipman, and Mr. West. Dr. Rose, a former U. S. Army surgeon, tended the sick and also hired (1834) a teacher for his children and ten others studying in a one-room schoolhouse. In the "Runaway Scrape" of 1836, the settlers and their slaves fled east as Santa Anna's Army camped here, pillaging homes and mills. Stafford's Point was resettled after the War for Independence, and again prospered. The buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado, first railroad in Texas, was completed from Harrisburg to this village in 1853. From 1915 to 1925, a number of Sicilian families moved here from brazos County. Stafford's Point was incorporated into the town of Stafford in 1956.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
The site compresses the whole sweep of early Anglo-American Texas—Austin's colony, a slave-worked plantation economy, the trauma of the revolution, and the coming of the railroad—into a single settlement's story.
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Related people
- · Stephen F. Austin
- · William J. Stafford
- · Clement C. Dyer
Related events
- · Runaway Scrape
Themes & tags
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