Virginia native Ritson Morris, born in 1798, came to Texas about 1827 and settled first in Nacogdoches, where he married Minerva Edwards in 1829. After the birth of their first child, they moved to this area in 1830, where Minerva's father, Amos Edwards, had settled in Stephen F. Austin's colony. Morris received a Mexican land grant and established the 3,000-acre Elmwood Plantation, where he raised livestock and crops and where the family lived first in a modest log house later replaced by a large two-story structure that stood until about 1885. Minerva Morris' brother, Ashmore Edwards, built a home nearby. In 1832 and 1835, Morris took part in skirmishes against the Mexican army at Anahuac, events that preceded the Texas Revolution of 1836. During the revolution, he sent his family to New Orleans for safety, but they later returned and continued living on the plantation for many years. After contracting tuberculosis, Ritson Morris died on September 21, 1849, and was buried in the family cemetery on Elmwood Plantation. Many of his descendants continue to live in southeast Harris County.