Elizabeth Powell was a Texas colonist who received a land grant for a league of land (4428 acres) from the Mexican government in present day Powell Point,

Fort Bend County, Texas Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year. It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days. T ...

, on the waters of the

San Bernard River The San Bernard River is a river in Texas. Course San Bernard River flows from a spring near New Ulm, TexasTexas Highways http://texashighways.com/travel/item/716-now-open-san-bernard-river to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, some to the so ...

and Turkey Creek. Powell operated a boarding house and bar that was a popular stop considering there were not many establishments in early Texas.

Santa Anna Santa Anna may refer to: * Santa Anna, Texas, a town in Coleman County in Central Texas, United States * Santa Anna, Starr County, Texas * Santa Anna Township, DeWitt County, Illinois, one of townships in DeWitt County, Illinois, United States. ...

's troops camped at Elizabeth Powell's boarding house before and after the

Battle of San Jacinto The Battle of San Jacinto ( es, Batalla de San Jacinto), fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day La Porte and Pasadena, Texas, was the final and decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Samuel Houston, the Texan Army engaged ...

. She had not fled with the

Runaway Scrape The Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations during the Texas Revolution, from the Battle of the Alamo through the decisive Ba ...

and was there on April 10, 1836 and to witness the arrival of Urrea's army on April 20, the event is documented in the journals of the soldiers who camped there.Moore (2004), p. 187. On April 24, she was forced to house the generals, as they planned the Mexican army's retreat. On April 26, they set fire to her house and outbuildings as the army departed.Robert T. Shelby, "POWELL, ELIZABETH," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpo72), accessed April 12, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Her homesite marks the most westward advance of Santa Anna's troops. There is a historical marker at this site that was erected by the state of Texas in 1936; however, it is on private property. Elizabeth Powell and her family were instrumental in early Texas history and well connected with other early Texas families. One local historian even suggests that the song, " The Yellow Rose of Texas", was written for her. There is no extant proof to support this claim.

Children

*Her son, Samuel Graves Powell, was a famous steamboat captain that operated on his ship, the ''Betty Powell'', up and down the Brazos River. The ship was named for his wife, Elizabeth Sheppard, whom he married in Matagorda County. *Her daughter, Julia Powell, was married to Charles Doane, who was an infamous police official in early San Francisco. *Her daughter, Elizabeth, married Isaac McGary (and later divorced him), who fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. Isaac's granddaughter (from his second wife), was instrumental in founding the University of Texas at Austin.

References

* * *Pamela A. Puryear and Nath Winfield, Jr., Sandbars and Sternwheelers: Steam Navigation on the Brazos (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1976) *Clarence Wharton, Wharton's History of Fort Bend County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1939) People from Fort Bend County, Texas Pre-statehood history of Texas {{Texas-bio-stub