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Born: 10/22/1914 -- Died: 8/5/1935
Mahomet Cemetery Plot: D 7
Lorinda Lee Priest was born in Austin on October 22, 1914 to George Taylor Priest and Annie Laura (George) Priest. She died on August 5, 1935 from complications from childbirth. Lorinda was survived by her husband O.C. Bud Smith and her son, Larry Al Smith. Bud Smith was the eldest son of Carroll and Sadie (Swinney) Smith, whose families were among those who originally settled and farmed the land around Mahomet.
Through her mother's line, Lorinda descends from Freeman George, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred," the original colonists who settled the region of Mexico that would become the Republic of Texas. Freeman George's son and Lorinda's great grandfather, David George, was a signer of the Goliad Declaration of Independence and fought under Captain Dimmitt in the Battle of Goliad.
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 Maria Martinez, 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. 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.
The majority of the Old Three Hundred colonists were from the Trans- Appalachian South; the largest number were from Louisiana, followed by Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri. Virtually all were originally of British ancestry. Many had been born east of the Appalachians and were part of the large westward migration of the early years of the nineteenth century. Though not all of the original grantees survived or prospered, Austin's Old Three Hundred, as historian T. R. Fehrenbach has written, formed "the first Anglo planter-gentry in the province."
Submited by: Eric T. Smith
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Last updated on the 17th of May 2015.