|
Egypt Texas
Bibliography
Churches
- Egypt is the oldest town in Wharton County.
-
1824 About 1824 first cabins built
-
1827 John C. Clark cleared and planted fifteen acres in corn. A severe
drought struck the Texas Gulf Coast that year with the only significant
rain in present Wharton County falling on Clark's land. As news of his
good fortune spread, other Austin colonists looked to him for
assistance and talked of "going down into Egypt for corn" (Genesis
42:2-3). The name stuck and a small settlement called "Egypt" developed
near Clark's place at the intersection of mail routes connecting
Richmond with Texana and Columbus and Matagorda.
-
Among the first settlers were the Heard, Northington, Duncan, and
Hudgins families who still occupy the 1850 home and operate the
plentiful farm and ranch lands settled by their ancestors.
-
Egypt Plantation Antique Barn.
-
See 1849 home of Captain Heard, the Egypt Museum and Depot, and the Egypt Plantation, Slave Cabins and Plantation Grounds.
- March 1828- Among the first
settlers at Egypt was Eli Mercer, a prominent farmer and Baptist
Preacher's son from Amite County, Mississippi. His oldest daughter
Penelope, married a local surveyor and teacher, Gail Borden Jr., in
March 1828. After visiting his older brother Tom, the surveyor
for Austin's colony, Borden returned to Mississippi and persuaded his
father-in-law to join him in moving to Texas. Bring his wife Ann Nancy,
five children and three slaves, Elix Mercer traveled by boat to
Natchitoches, Louisiana, then came overland by wagon and arrived at
Egypt on November 29, 1829.
- December 1829- Since Penelope
was pregnant, she and her husband came later by boat, and their baby
Mary was born on Galveston Island on Christmas Eve of 1829.
- 1833 John Clark purchased a
comely mulattos named Sobrina, who was kept on the plantation with his
other slaves. Sobrina had three children-Bishop, Lorinda and Nancy-by
her master, and they later brought a fam0us lawsuit which established
the validity of the common law marriage in Texas
- 1849 John Clark built a three
room brick house and his holdings evolved into a large plantation
worked by 116 slaves. A single man who made only unkind remarks about
his relatives, Clark had and antisocial nature and seemed to be
preoccupied with making money.
- 1899 Depot is constructed when
G.H. Northington and Green C. Duncan conveyed property and provided
funds to build a Depot in Egypt.
- 1948 Museum opens at Northington's General Store.
- 1950's Depot stops operating. Same year George Heard Northington Jr. rescued the building.
- Depot is moved to the grounds of the historic 1849 Heard Northington Home on the 1830's Egypt Plantation
|
Egypt Churches
|
|