Per the Texas State Historical Association's "
Handbook of Texas" site:
"The name Old Three Hundred is sometimes used to refer to the settlers who received land grants in Stephen F. Austin's first colony. In January 1821 Austin's father, Moses Austin, had received a permit from the Spanish to settle 300 families in Texas, but he died in Missouri a short time later before he could realize his plans. Stephen F. Austin took his father's place and traveled to San Antonio, where he met with the Spanish governor Antonio María Martínez, who acknowledged him as his father's successor. Austin quickly found willing colonists, and by the end of the summer of 1824 most of the Old Three Hundred were in Texas. During 1823–24 Austin and the land commissioner Baron de Bastrop issued 272 titles, but Bastrop was called away in August 1824, and the work remained unfinished until 1827, when the new commissioner, Gaspar Flores de Abrego, issued the remaining titles. Since the family was the unit for distribution, Austin permitted unmarried men to receive grants in partnership, usually in groups of two or three. Twenty-two such partnership titles were issued to fifty-nine partners. In all, 307 titles were issued, with nine families receiving two titles each. Thus the total number of grantees, excluding Austin's own grant, was actually 297, not 300. The colonization decree required that all the lands should be occupied and improved within two years; most of the settlers were able to comply with the terms, and only seven of the grants were forfeited.
The lands selected by the colonists were along the rich bottomlands of the Brazos, Colorado, and San Bernard rivers, extending from the vicinity of present-day Brenham, Navasota, and La Grange to the Gulf of Mexico. According to the terms of the colonization agreement, each family engaged in farming was to receive one labor (about 177 acres) and each ranching family one sitio (about 4,428 acres). Because of the obvious advantages, a sizeable number of the colonists classified themselves as stock raisers, though they were technically planters. Each family's sitio was to have a frontage on the river equal to about one-fourth of its length; thus the east bank of the Brazos was soon completely occupied from the Gulf to what is now Brazos County. Most of the labors were arranged in three groups around San Felipe de Austin, which formed the nucleus of the colony."
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Elemelech Swearingen purchased the last parcel of land and became the last member of Austin's original "old 300" colony. Per a Texas historical marker near the SW border of the plot:
"Austin County pioneer and Texas War for Independence veteran, Elemelech Swearingen, was born in Shepherdsville, Kentucky (Bullitt Co.) in 1805. He married Angela Weeks (1811-1883) in 1827 and in 1831, moved with his family to Texas.
The Swearingens became the last additions to Stephen F. Austin’s Old 300 when another family withdrew their application.
Swearingen built a farm, settling on land near what became the community of Millheim, in present-day Austin County. The Swearingens were among the earliest settler in this area, where they raised nine children and lived the rest of their lives. Elemelech Swearingen was a leader in Millheim and served as the community’s first postmaster. During the Texas Revolution, Elemelech Swearingen served as a second sergeant in the 1st regiment infantry, Company B under Captain Amasa Turner. He later served in the ill-fated Mier Expedition.
Angelina Swearingen died in 1883, and Elemelech died in 1887. Their burial site is on their land near their former home. For his military service, Elemelech received a headright of land in Callahan County. Swearingen Road runs through his former Austin County property, near the gravesite. Today, Elemelech Swearingen is remembered as a patriot who fought for Texas Independence."