Grigsby's Bluff

Joseph Grigsby was born on September 24, 1771, in Loudoun County, Virginia, and married Sarah Graham in Kentucky in 1798; they had thirteen children. The Handbook of Texas puts the move to Texas in 1828, a year after the plaque, and says that after the Revolution he built the area's first horse-driven cotton gin. His plantation on the Neches rested on enslaved labor. He represented Jefferson County in three congresses of the Republic and died at Grigsby's Bluff on September 13, 1841; he was buried on his plantation.

What the plaque says

Grigsby's Bluff (1834-1902) Joseph Grigsby (1771-1841) and family migrated from Kentucky to the Sabine area in 1827. He is said to have been the first grower of cotton in East Texas. In 1834 he received a grant of 17 labors (3,009 acres) of land on the Neches. Here he built a wharf for sidewheel steamers and founded town of grigsby's Bluff. He served in 2nd, 3rd and 5th congresses of the Republic of Texas. His settlement became Port Neches, and his family has given many leaders to Texas. A huge pecan tree (at Texaco Refinery, 6 blocks SE) marks site of Grigsby's Bluff. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 8.1 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 8.4 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• McFaddin-Ward House — 12 mi
  A Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival mansion finished in 1906 and lived in by one family for 75 years, with free guided tours of three furnished floors, the carriage house and gardens.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 14 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.

More markers nearby

• First United Methodist Church of Port Neches — 0.8 mi
• Tex Ritter — 0.9 mi
• First Baptist Church of Port Neches — 1.3 mi
• Site of First Mercantile Building — 2.7 mi