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Dread Dawson and Elizabeth Patterson
History From Georgia to Texas
Daughter- Sarah Dawson Married Clarke Carter
Dread Dawson had married in 1800, a date which would estimate his birth as c1780. He would have been thirty-seven in 1817 when his Mother’s will was probated and when, in all likelihood, the sizable estate was divided. Dawson family tradition states that Dread migrated from Richmond Co Georgia in 1817 to Alabama.
This was a time when the vast territories of Western Georgia. Alabama and Mississippi were opened for settlement. Land was sold for as little as one-half cent per acre to those who were made aware of the opportunity. General George Matthews, who had led the settlement of Richmond County, had served three two year terms as Governor of Georgia by 1800 and had an active role in the settlement of the Western Georgia Territories. The Dawson Family, without doubt, was one of the most influential in all of Eastern Georgia and it must be assumed that their close friendship with General George Matthews would have given them knowledge of the low prices of the lands to the West and an opportunity to purchase large tracts.
The Dread Dawson Family prospered in Alabama.. Dread Dawson was a successful Planter who owned many acres of land and many slaves. The site of the Dread Dawson Plantation has not been identified, but it may have been in the Southeastern portion of what became the State of Alabama and may have expanded into Florida where his son, Brit Dawson, was born.
Dread Dawson disposed of his Alabama holdings in 1825 and migrated to Mexican Texas in the area of present day Jasper County, Texas. Many American families were eager to acquire the rich and inexpensive land located in the Mexican province that was just across the Sabine River, the boundary that divided Mexican territory from the Louisiana Purchase Territory owned by the United States. The area settled by Dread Dawson and his family was sixty or seventy miles up the Neches River, north of Port Arthur, Texas.
The Dawson family remained there for eight years and, probably, continued to increase their holdings. It was in 1833 that Dread Dawson succumbed to the lure of even more inexpensive land and made still another move, this time to Robertson’s Colony which was headquartered at Fort Franklin. The Dread Dawson family was said to have settled several miles west of Fort Franklin in an area on the Brazos River known as Milam’s settlement. Sterling Clack Robertson, son of Tennessee pioneers who had grown rich with land expansion, had received permission to settle a vast area of Mexican Texas with eight hundred families. He had led the initial group there by horseback in 1830 and another group by boat in 183l. Dread Dawson, probably, went from the Jasper area to Robertson’s Colony for an inspection trip at some point between 1830 and 1833 and moved his family there in 1833.
Young Brit Dawson Jr.- Dread Dawson’s son was nineteen when Sam Houston issued a call for volunteers to serve in an army to free Texas from Mexico. Brit Dawson, under the command of Col. Robertson, is said to have joined Houston’s group while they camped on the West Bank of the Brazos and engaged in training.