The Griffith Homesite and Cemetery
Dobbin, Montgomery County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Elias R. Wightman, a surveyor in Stephen F. Austin's first colony, returned to the United States in 1828 to recruit additional settlers. Two colonists who joined him in New York were his sister Esther (1788-1863) and her husband Noah Griffith (1786-1853). In the early part of 1829 they arrived at the Texas port of Matagorda, platted earlier by Wightman. As settlers of Austin's second colony, the Griffiths received a land grant at this site from the Mexican government. They moved here with their three sons in 1831 and built a log cabin on the property. Their oldest son, Leroy Alonzo (1821-1883), served in local government before moving to Salado in Bell County. There he helped organize the first Texas grange movement, an alliance of farmers, in 1873. Another son, Joshua Delos (1825-1887), buried here, operated one of the first sawmills in the area. The third son, John Maynard (b. 1828), married Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson, who was known as "the babe of the Alamo" because she and her mother Suzanna Dickinson had survived the 1836 battle. Noah and Esther Griffith were buried 20 feet from her in front of their homesite. The cemetery is used for the burial of family members and friends.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When surveyor Elias Wightman returned east in 1828 to recruit colonists for Stephen F. Austin's Texas venture, among those who joined him were his sister Esther and her husband Noah Griffith. Arriving through the port of Matagorda in 1829, the family received a Mexican land grant here and built a log cabin in 1831. Their sons spread into Texas life — one helped organize an early grange of farmers, another ran an early sawmill, and a third married Angelina Dickinson, remembered as "the babe of the Alamo" who survived the 1836 battle as an infant.
Why it matters
This homesite links an ordinary pioneer family to the founding colonization of Anglo Texas and, through marriage, to the legend of the Alamo itself.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the 1820s Texas belonged to Mexico, which had recently won independence from Spain. Mexico's government wanted settlers on its thinly populated northern frontier, so it let empresarios such as Stephen F. Austin bring in colonists from the United States. Families willing to become Mexican citizens received generous land grants.
Austin's first colony was followed by more settlement contracts, and colonists came by land and by sea. The Gulf Coast ports were the entry point for families traveling from the eastern United States, a long and often hard voyage that ended in a country with a different language, laws and religion.
This was a short-lived period. By the early 1830s tensions between Anglo colonists and the Mexican government were growing, and in 1835 and 1836 they broke into the Texas Revolution. The Griffith family arrived during that brief window, before Texas had been fought over.
People & events
The story starts with Elias R. Wightman, a surveyor in Austin's first colony. In 1828 he went back to the United States to recruit settlers. In New York his recruits included his sister Esther and her husband, Noah Griffith. Early in 1829 they landed at Matagorda, a Texas port Wightman had platted himself, so the family arrived in a town laid out by one of their own.
As settlers of Austin's second colony, the Griffiths received this land from the Mexican government. In 1831 they moved here with their three sons and built a log cabin. The sons went in three different directions. Leroy Alonzo served in local government and later moved to Salado, where in 1873 he helped organize the first Texas grange, an alliance of farmers. Joshua Delos ran one of the first sawmills in the area and is buried here.
The third son, John Maynard, married Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson, known as "the babe of the Alamo." As a small child she and her mother survived the 1836 battle, which made them among the best-known survivors of the most famous fight in Texas history. Noah and Esther Griffith are buried 20 feet from her grave, in front of the homesite where the family began.
Its place in the American story
This quiet family cemetery connects several of the key chapters in the early history of Texas. The Griffiths came as colonists under Mexican rule, lived through the revolution, and stayed as the land passed from Mexico to the Republic of Texas and then into the United States. One family's life ran across all of those changes.
Their sons' stories reach into later American history too. The grange movement Leroy helped bring to Texas belonged to a national wave of farmer organizing after the Civil War. Farmers joined forces to take on railroads, merchants and falling prices, and that movement shaped rural politics across the country for decades.
Through Angelina Dickinson, the site is also tied to the Alamo, one of the most powerful symbols in American memory. Her grave here is a reminder that the survivors of such famous events went on to ordinary lives, marriages and families, and were finally buried in quiet country ground like this.
If you visit
This is a family cemetery on the site of a pioneer homestead, and the marker notes it is still used for burials of family and friends. Treat it as a private, living place. Be respectful, and if you find the grounds closed or on private land, read the marker from a respectful distance.
If you can see the graves, look for the relationship the marker describes: Noah and Esther Griffith buried about 20 feet from Angelina, in front of the homesite. Standing there, try to picture the 1831 log cabin and the family who crossed from New York by sea to start again on the Mexican frontier.
Dobbin is in the piney woods country north of Houston, and the stop goes well with a trip to the sites of the Texas Revolution. Pairing a visit here with the Alamo, or with the battle sites nearer the coast, gives you both the famous events and the lives of the people who came after them.
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
- · Elias R. Wightman
- · Noah Griffith
- · Esther Wightman Griffith
- · Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson
- · Susanna Dickinson
Themes & tags
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