Campbell's Bayou was settled in 1821 by privateer James Campbell (1791-1856), a U. S. Navy veteran of the War of 1812 who after his discharge became a lieutenant and close friend of buccaneer Jean Lafitte, operating out of Galveston, then called Campeche. In Karankawa Indian rituals about 1817, Mary Sabinal (1795-1884) became Campbell's bride. When Lafitte left Texas in 1821, Campbell pleased his wife by settling here as a rancher. The community remained until its second destruction by hurricane in 1915. The graves of the Campbells and many other early Texans are in the cemetery at Campbell's Bayou.