Samuel McCarley (1775-1838), his wife Celia (1794-1873), and their ten children settled near here on Spring Creek in 1831. By 1836 the McCarley home stood on a well-traveled road linking Washington-on-the-Brazos with Harrisburg, and their neighbor Abraham Roberts lived about three miles east at a fork where one road led to the Trinity River and the other to Harrisburg. On April 15, 1836, the Texas army under General Sam Houston left camp near the Brazos River, marched east, and arrived here at dusk. Overnight, Houston's 1100 hungry soldiers consumed cattle, corn, and bacon belonging to the McCarleys and burned about 4,000 of their fence rails for fuel. According to post-war accounts, many in the Texas army strongly suspected that Houston was unwilling to engage the Mexican army, which was known to be advancing toward Harrisburg. On April 16, however, Houston and the Texas soldiers took the Harrisburg Road at the fork, and on April 21 they defeated the Mexican army at the Battle of San Jacinto to win Texas independence. Samuel McCarley died in 1838, and in 1858 the State of Texas awarded his widow Celia $460 as compensation for damage caused by the Texas army.