In the 1820s, the first Anglo settlers came to Texas with Empresario Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" families. Although the first city, San Felipe de Austin, was established in nearby Austin County, many of the "Old 300" settled in Harris County, including families and single men moving westward from the United States to acquire land. Deer Park was established in 1892 near the San Jacinto Battleground by Simeon Henry West, but settlers lived there before the town was officially formed. Among them were Mary Wilson Jackson and her brother William Wilson, both of Boston, Massachusetts, who died in 1834. Deed records show that William Wilson owned granted land, abstract 838, shown on early Harris County plat maps near Crosby, the San Jacinto River, and Gum Gully, beside the property of "Old 300" settler Humphrey Jackson. Harris County records from 1852 suggest that Mary W. Jackson was associated with Humphrey Jackson's family, and there is also a record of William Wilson purchasing property from the Thomas Earle grant in the area that became Deer Park near what is now the Shell refinery. Mary W. Jackson was living with the Edward N. Clopper family when she died, and William Wilson died several weeks later. They were buried on the Wilson property, where the original gravestone site was discovered by Shell in 1928. Their gravestone, no longer in its original location, records their ages and dates of death and stands as a reminder of two of Deer Park's earliest Anglo settlers and of the area's history and traditions.