Elias R. Wightman, a surveyor in Stephen F. Austin's first colony, returned to the United States in 1828 to recruit additional settlers. Among the colonists who joined him in New York were his sister Esther and her husband Noah Griffith. They arrived at the Texas port of Matagorda in the early part of 1829 as settlers of Austin's second colony and received a land grant at this site from the Mexican government. In 1831 the Griffiths moved here with their three sons and built a log cabin on the property. Their oldest son, Leroy Alonzo, later served in local government before moving to Salado in Bell County, where he helped organize the first Texas Grange movement, an alliance of farmers, in 1873. Another son, Joshua Delos, who is buried here, operated one of the first sawmills in the area. Their third son, John Maynard, married Angelina Elizabeth Dickinson, 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, and the cemetery continues to be used for the burial of family members and friends.