Among this area's earliest settlers from North Carolina, Daniel Mclean came to Texas in 1813 with the Guttierez-Magee Expedition, seeking to free Mexico from Spain. He returned when Austin opened Texas to Anglo-American colonization and took up land in 1824 on San Pedro Creek east of here, while his brother-in-law John Sheridan settled on Silver Creek three hundred yards north. Near the site of present Slocum, twelve miles northwest, both men were killed by Indians while pursuing stolen horses. Mrs. Sheridan, with help of a boy, brought back the bodies, and each man was buried on his own land.