Samuel Myer Isaacks

Samuel Isaacks, was one of Stephen F. Austin's 300 original settlers who came to Texas in 1821, when the territory was still part of Mexico.

Andrew Jackson Isaacks b. 1835 d. 1869 Son of Samuel and Martha Ann Isaacks

• Find-A-Grave

Note: marker just inside gate near the fence

Burial: Body lost or destroyed Specifically: body moved from homestead across Taylor Bayou to south and east

Andrew Jackson Isaacks b. 1835 d. 1869 Son of Samuel and Martha Ann Isaacks

Samuel Isaacks married two times; 1st Nancy ALLEN With whome he had two children,Nancy died shortly after the birth of their second son John Leroy Isaacks; 2nd Samuel married Martha "Patsy" Richardson.(Note:In his history nothing is said about the first family so they may have all died prior to him moving or been taken in by other family when he moved.

NOTE: he and his wife were re-interred in this cemetery from their old home place.

"Samuel III was one of Austin's "Old 300" as shown by the Land Office archives; he was also a soldier in the Texas Revolution, and my father often told me that he was at the Battle of San Jacinto, although the records do not substantiate this. There can be, however, no question but that he was in the Army at the time of this battle, but I have been unable to find a record of his first enlistment. He was listed as a first class veteran, which means that he served in 1836, prior to the establishment of the permanent Government. The Comptroller's military record No. 7702, in the Texas State Library, shows his discharge, signed by John Ingram, Capt. Jasper Volunteers. The fact that he was one of the Jasper Volunteers indicates that in 1836 he probably resided in Jasper County, the home of his father. Evidently, he did not live many years on his original grant in Fort Bend County. His oldest son, Wesley, was born May 31, 1832, in what is now Angelina County. This county adjoins Jasper, and no doubt he moved there sometime prior to "32, to be in the same part of the country as his father, Elijah. About 1850, he purchased 200 acres of land at Lynchburg, in Harris County, just across the San Jacinto River from the battleground. This land was acquired, at least in part, for the purpose of building wharves and private shipping and loading facilities. Lynchburg was at that time the head of navigation of the San Jacinto. Cold Spring, nearly 100 miles North, in San Jacinto County, was the center and trading point of a very well developed agricultural region, and he conceived the idea of opening up a road between the two points, and establishing a freight line. This he did, and one knowing the character of the country traversed, with its heavy timber and undergrowth, as well as the many streams, will realize what a tremendous undertaking it was. He opened up and operated this line with ox teams for a number of years, but opening up of navigation through Buffalo Bayou to Houston and other roads, put him out of business. He continued to reside at Lynchburg until after the Civil War, when he sold his holdings there and purchased a tract of some 300 acres on Taylor's Bayou, near Galveston Bay, a short distance from where the Bayou enters into the Bay, and three or four miles Northwest from the present town of Seabrook. He lived there until his death in 1878, and was buried under a live oak tree a few hundred yards from his home on the homestead tract. He had lived in Tennessee, the State of his birth, Mississippi, the Republic of Mexico, the Republic of Texas, which he helped to establish, the State of Texas, as one of the American Union, the Southern Confederacy, and again in the United States of America. Among his friends he numbered scores of the Texas veterans, and among them a few leaders, notably Sam Houston and General Ed Burleson, for the latter of whom he named one of his sons.

When I was six or seven years old our family made an extended visit of several months to his Taylor's Bayou home, and my recollection of him and the home place is rather vivid. As I remember him, he was probably six feet tall, "raw-boned," or stalwart, and very active for a man more than 72 years old. He was fond of children, especially boys, and he took delight in instructing me in many things connected with the farm and livestock, and especially in woodcraft. To my childish mind he was the man of perfection, both physically and intellectually. In about two years after our return to the West a letter came announcing his death, and for days my grief was intense. His wife, Martha, it seemed to me as a boy, was a remarkable woman, and I never changed my mind when I grew to maturity. She lived until 1893, nearly 80 years, and while she made her home at or near Houston, after grandfather's death she frequently visited in our home, some 200 miles West. I can now recall how, on her first visit, she talked of her fear of the train and her dread of the journey. At that time not so many people in Texas had ridden the railroad cars. Small of stature, probably never balancing the scales at as much as 100 pounds, she was one of the most kindly and motherly souls. One of my sweetest memories is when she held me on her lap and sang "The Promised Land," the first hymn that I can remember ever having heard. She smoked a clay pipe, and my greatest delight was to help her fill and light it."

From, THE ISAACKS FAMILY IN AMERICA AND TEXAS, by Samuel Jackson Isaacks, June 15, 1935.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 3 2019, 1:51:43 UTC

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Samuel Isaacks, perhaps the earliest Jewish settler in Texas, the son of Esther (Donaho) and Elijah Isaacks, was born in Tennessee on April 21, 1804. He moved to Texas with William Andrews and was somewhere on the Brazos River when Stephen F. Austin arrived with his first colonists. Austin, not having the 300 families provided for in his contract with the Mexican government, drafted Isaacks as one of his Old Three Hundred colonists. Isaacks's grant of a league and a labor of land, made on July 15, 1824, was located in a bend of the Brazos across from the site of present Rosenberg. He was awarded bounty land in Polk County for his services during the Texas Revolution. Isaacks's first wife, Nancy (Allen), whom he married in September 1824, was the mother of William Allen and John Leary Isaacks. After her death about 1828, he married Martha Richardson in 1832, and they had twelve children. About 1855 Isaacks moved to Harris County across from the mouth of Buffalo Bayou, built wharves, and opened a road to Cold Springs, along which he freighted supplies from Galveston by ox wagon. With the building of railroads he disposed of his wagons and teams and bought land on Taylor's Bayou, near Seabrook, where he lived until his death in 1878. Samuel and Martha Isaacks were initially buried on their property, but were reinterred on the west side Taylor Lake at the Hammer McFaddin Harris Cemetery.