New Washington

New Washington was at the point where Buffalo Bayou entered San Jacinto Bay, at the northwestern extremity of Galveston Bay in eastern Harris County. The land was owned by a Mr. Rightor in 1822; it was acquired by Johnson Calhoun Hunter in 1824 and by J. C. Clopper and his three sons in 1829. Clopper renamed the area Clopper's Point. In the 1830s the town was laid out on a bluff by James Morgan, acting as an agent for the New Washington Association, a group of New York financiers. Morgan purchased 1,600 acres from Clopper in the area in 1835. The planned development failed but brought in a group of Scottish Highlanders and left the beginnings of orange groves and cattle herds. In April 1836, a few days before the battle of San Jacinto, Antonio López de Santa Anna almost captured David G. Burnet and the ad interim government at New Washington. The Mexicans burned the settlement as they moved back to Buffalo Bayou. Although Morgan rebuilt his home, the town could not compete with the growth of Houston, and no attempt was made to reestablish a settlement until the 1870s, when the Houston Ship Channel was completed to the point, and the new town of Morgan's Point developed.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.