Details for William Jones Elliot Heard and Egypt Plantation

Historical Marker — Atlas Number 5481005834

Data

Marker Number 5834
Atlas Number 5481005834
Marker Title William Jones Elliot Heard and Egypt Plantation
Index Entry Heard, William Jones Elliot, and Egypt Plantation
Address FM 1161, off FM 102
City Egypt
County Wharton
UTM Zone 14
UTM Easting 768367
UTM Northing 3255741
Subject Codes judges; Texas Revolution, Republic of Texas; pioneers; local law enforcement officer; military topics; plantations
Marker Year 1993
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark No
Marker Location 4/10 mile E of Egypt (and FM 102) on FM 1161 Egypt
Private Property No
Marker Condition In Situ
Marker Size 27" x 42"
Marker Text William Jones Elliot Heard was born in Tennessee in 1801, the first of Stephen R. and Jemima M. Heard's nine children. Sometime in the 1820s Heard moved to Alabama where he married America Morton. Heard received a land certificate from Stephen F. Austin in 1830 and in 1832 settled here on 2,222 acres he acquired from John C. Clark, one of Austin's "Old 300" settlers. The area's rich soil prompted early settlers to name their town for the biblical Egypt and later to refer to Heard's property as "Egypt Plantation." On April 21, 1836, about a month after Egypt Plantation had narrowly escaped destruction at the hands of the advancing Mexican army, Heard commanded Company F in San Houston's army at the Battle of San Jacinto. After the war, Heard built a cotton gin at Egypt Plantation and raised cattle, cotton, corn, and sugar cane. He registered his first cattle brand in 1837. In 1840 he joined Colonel John H. Moore in a campaign against the Indians in the upper Colorado River area. In 1846 Heard was elected chief justice of Wharton County. He died in 1874 and was buried in the Masonic cemetery at Chappell Hill in Washington County. A red brick residence built here by Heard in 1849-54 had by the early 1990s housed six generations of his family.

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