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Joseph D Grigsby

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Joseph D Grigsby

Birth
Loudoun County, Virginia, USA
Death
13 Aug 1841 (aged 69)
Jefferson County, Texas, USA
Burial
Port Neches, Jefferson County, Texas, USA Add to Map
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No pioneer was more respected than Joseph Grigsby, an early cotton planter and legislator. Born in Virginia in 1771, Grigsby and his wife moved to Kentucky, where some of their children grew to adulthood. In 1828, financial reverses caused the family to resettle in Jasper County and subsequently, at Grigsby's Bluff, the site of present-day Port Neches. Their daughter, Frances, married George W. Smyth, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Grigsby served in three of the first four Texas congresses. His plantation, with its twenty-five slaves, was the birthplace of the county's earliest cotton culture. The planter also operated a primi­tive, horse-driven sawmill and built the first horse-driven cotton gin at Beaumont, a town site in which he owned a one-quarter interest. Any possibility that a cotton plantation-slave economy might evolve in Jefferson County ended in August 1841 when Grigsby died. His estate was of such size that the executor, George W. Smyth, could not obtain the necessary bond, and an enabling act was enacted by the Texas legislature to exempt him.

Joseph Grigsby was buried next to his 16-year-old daughter, Mathilda Margaret, in Grigsby Cemetery "reputedly under a pecan tree near the Texaco, Inc. docks at Port Neches," (Sapphire City of the Neches, by W. T. Block). The pecan tree was destroyed about 1969 and no visible headstone remains.
Contributor: Mike S (49400560)
No pioneer was more respected than Joseph Grigsby, an early cotton planter and legislator. Born in Virginia in 1771, Grigsby and his wife moved to Kentucky, where some of their children grew to adulthood. In 1828, financial reverses caused the family to resettle in Jasper County and subsequently, at Grigsby's Bluff, the site of present-day Port Neches. Their daughter, Frances, married George W. Smyth, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Grigsby served in three of the first four Texas congresses. His plantation, with its twenty-five slaves, was the birthplace of the county's earliest cotton culture. The planter also operated a primi­tive, horse-driven sawmill and built the first horse-driven cotton gin at Beaumont, a town site in which he owned a one-quarter interest. Any possibility that a cotton plantation-slave economy might evolve in Jefferson County ended in August 1841 when Grigsby died. His estate was of such size that the executor, George W. Smyth, could not obtain the necessary bond, and an enabling act was enacted by the Texas legislature to exempt him.

Joseph Grigsby was buried next to his 16-year-old daughter, Mathilda Margaret, in Grigsby Cemetery "reputedly under a pecan tree near the Texaco, Inc. docks at Port Neches," (Sapphire City of the Neches, by W. T. Block). The pecan tree was destroyed about 1969 and no visible headstone remains.
Contributor: Mike S (49400560)

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  • Created by: Homer King
  • Added: Dec 19, 2014
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140230258/joseph_d-grigsby: accessed ), memorial page for Joseph D Grigsby (24 Sep 1771–13 Aug 1841), Find a Grave Memorial ID 140230258, citing Grigsby Cemetery, Port Neches, Jefferson County, Texas, USA; Burial Details Unknown; Maintained by Homer King (contributor 47410672).