Isaac Best - Texas Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Per the Texas State Historical Association's "Handbook of Texas Online" website:

"Isaac Best (1774–1837), one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, the son of Stephen Best, was born in 1774, possibly in Pennsylvania. He married Mary Margaret Wilkins, and the couple had nine children. After spending his early years in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, Best and his wife left Garrard County, Kentucky, and moved to Montgomery County in southern Missouri in 1808. There he built a mill and an outpost known as Best's Fort, which served as a refuge from Indian attacks during the War of 1812. The family and several slaves moved to Texas in 1824. On August 19 of that year Best received title to a sitio ["site", in Spanish] east of the Brazos River in what is now Waller County. He increased his landholdings and built a home near the site of present Pattison. The 1826 census described Best as a farmer and stock raiser between forty and fifty years of age. His household consisted of his wife, three sons, two daughters, and four slaves. Best may have lived at San Felipe in 1833, when William B. Travis issued a subpoena for him as a witness in a case against Isaac Clower. Best died near Pattison in 1837. On August 29, 1974, the Texas Historical Commission dedicated a marker to him on Farm Road 1458 1½ miles west of Pattison."

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lester G. Bugbee, "The Old Three Hundred: A List of Settlers in Austin's First Colony," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). Waller County Historical Survey Committee, A History of Waller County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1973)."


A correction to the note above: the marker is actually just .75 miles of Pattison on FM-1458, and the current THC Atlas UTM records -- as per this posting -- incorrectly points its location to be located somewhere in the fields north of FM-1458 on private property.

Marker Number: 9374 Marker Text: (1774 – 1837) One of the "Old 300" settlers of Stephen F. Austin's colony, Isaac Best spent his early life in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, where he built a mill and Best's Fort, a pioneer refuge during the War of 1812. He brought his wife Mary Margaret (Wilkins) (1776-1852) and some of their nine children to Texas about 1824. He received a land grant east of the Brazos River about 30 miles north of San Felipe. He later sold that tract of land and purchased additional land, eventually increasing his holdings to about 8,000 acres. Best Creek (one-half mile west) is named for him. (1973, 1995)

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