Morgan's Point Cemetery

Before coming to Texas, Morgan bound his sixteen slaves as indentured servants for ninety-nine years to get around Mexico's prohibition of slavery. His defiance of customs collector George Fisher at Anahuac made him a local leader, and as agent for the New Washington Association he brought in Scottish Highlanders and free Black New Yorkers, Emily D. West among them. In 1843 he and William Bryan were the commissioners for the secret sale of the Texas Navy. He reputedly imported the first Durham shorthorns into Texas and entertained John James Audubon at Orange Grove.

What the plaque says

Morgan's Point Cemetery One of the oldest cemeteries in continuous use in Harris County, this cemetery was founded by Colonel James Morgan, Texas revolutionary soldier. Located on land bought by Morgan in 1834, it was part of a family estate called "The Orange Grove." The earliest marked grave here is that of James Morgan's niece, Sarah P. Morgan Patrick, who died of smallpox on July 13, 1838. Morgan's wife, Celia Gordon Morgan, was buried in October 1840, a victim of tuberculosis. Colonel Morgan was buried here in March 1866. The Morgan family plot was at one time lined with handmade bricks and marked by a large tombstone bearing the names of family members. The stone disappeared and was found by fishermen years later submerged in the bay. Stolen again after its replacement, it was never recovered. The cemetery, which had originally encompassed a much larger area, is surrounded by an industrial complex. The Morgan's Point Cemetery Association, formed in 1922, cared for the cemetery until the city of Morgan's Point assumed responsibility for maintenance in 1965. A fence was built in 1968, and ordinances regarding care of the cemetery were passed in recent years. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 7.2 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 11 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Emancipation Park — 23 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 23 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.

More markers nearby

• Bay Ridge / Morgan's Point — 0.6 mi
• Gribble-Hofheinz House — 0.9 mi
• New Washington — 1.0 mi
• Saint Mary's Seminary — 1.9 mi