Brays Bayou History

[gonzo1976]

Someone recently asked me how Bray's Bayou got its name. I sent a note to isuredid about it, and I wanted to get some feedback from the other history aficionados here.

I'm almost certain the bayou got its name just before 1826 because that is where John Harris set up Harrisburg. Bray's Bayou also shows up in an 1828 diary as well.

But who was the bayou named after? Maybe a member of Harris' party? Or one member of the Old Three Hundred?

[Mark F. Barnes]

I have been reading all night and have found references to it dating back to Pineda. In the journals of Alonso

[apollopride]

I have been reading all night and have found references to it dating back to Pineda. In the journals of Alonso

[apollopride]

Nope. Braeswood, Braes Heights, etc.--but Brays Bayou.

(

Amazing!

[gonzo1976]

Page 23 of the WPA Guide to Houston makes reference to the 1828 diary of Joseph Clopper:

"Harrisburg is laid out on the west side of this bayou just below its junction with Bray's bayou..."

[57Tbird]

I see a lot of historical references as Brays Bayou and not Bray's Bayou. So possibly, it is not named after someone named Bray. Could be just a different spelling of brae as mentioned above by apollopride and as noted in the following reference:

Bray, n. [OE. braye, brey, brew, eyebrow, brow of a hill,

hill, bank, Scot. bra, brae, bray, fr. AS. br?w eyebrow,

influenced by the allied Icel. br? eyebrow, bank, also akin

to AS. br? yebrow. See Brow.]

A bank; the slope of a hill; a hill. See Brae, which is now

the usual spelling. [North of Eng. & Scot.] --Fairfax.

[FilioScotia]

In the journals of Alonso

[Mark F. Barnes]

Friggin' Theread Hi-Jackers!

Start your own dang thread and quit stealing others!

You want to learn to speak English or study the variances in the southern diphthong? Start your own thread in the "WAY OFF TOPIC" area!

You don't like it PM a moderator, don't know how, ask Pumapayam, we know he can show you how!

[Mark F. Barnes]

I suspect the references to Buffalo Bayou and Bray's Bayou were added to Pineda's journal by an editor many years and centuries after 1519. Those streams didn't acquire names until several centuries later. And I don't think Pineda named it either. Those early explorers encountered countless rivers, and they named some of them, but I don't think they would bother to name a small stream. Even if he did why would he give it a name that's clearly not Spanish.

Unless we've been misspelling it all these years. Maybe the original name was Spanish -- Bres -- which I think would be pronounced "Brays". This could also explain the other spelling. Later editors would see the word "Bres" in the journal and somewhere along the line the letter "a" would be added to create "Braes".

I love speculating about things I know nothing about. But I do know where Keegan's Bayou got its name. The Handbook of Texas says "KEEGANS BAYOU rises one mile south of Clodine and two miles west of the Harris county line in northeastern Fort Bend County (at 29

[Mark F. Barnes]

I agree that Pineda did not name it. I don't think he ever even came ashore. He was mapping the Gulf Coast, not inland. I have read several accounts of early Spanish expeditions inland and none of them named bayous, just rivers.

This is a stretch, but there was one Austin colonist named Brias. I don't know where he settled.

Now we could be on to something. Brias wasn't one of "Old Three Hundred" that settled under Moses Austin in 1824, I looked that up on my list, will have to go throught the spanish land grant list and war rosters and see what I can dig up.

[PapillionWyngs]

I always thought it was Braes. Where was I?

[Guest Marty]

The link......Has anybody tried contacting Harris County Flood Control like in a email?

[gonzo1976]

From the Handbook of Texas link:

[brias/Reels]received title to a sitio of land now in Harris County on May 1, 1827.

I'm almost certain the Bray's/Brays Bayou name existed before then. John Harris (or someone in his party) must have known or came up with the bayou's name when he first landed in the area.

I also think the name must have been named after someone, like Vince's Bayou or Sims Bayou maybe.

[sevfiv]

i am leaning toward the european etymology...but still, who chose it?!

btw - happy birthday, gonzo

[gonzo1976]

The reference for the naming of Bray's Bayou comes from:

History of Texas, from 1685 to 1892... By John Henry Brown..

Publication info: St. Louis, L. E. Daniell [c1892-93]

It may be hard to find, but there is a copy in the Fondren Library at Rice University and also in their Woodson Research Center in the Masterson collection.

Is this the source for the James Bray reference?

I have a source at the Houston Public Library who's been looking into the matter. Maybe she can check that out.

[Mark F. Barnes]

Here is one of the few mentions I found on anyone named Bray that I ran across back when this was first posted but found no link to the Bayou.

http://users.ev1.net/~gpmoran/ch2a.htm

Fort Esperanza (Also known as Fort De Bray and Fort Washington)

This fort was a Civil War earthwork fortification on the east shore of Matagorda Island constructed to guard Cavallo Pass, the entry to Matagorda Bay. It was built in 1861 when it was determined that Fort Washington, a small fort near the lighthouse on Matagorda Island was too exposed. On November 29th, 1863, the Confederates, outnumbered and outflanked, evacuated the fort and it was occupied and repaired by Union forces and they used it as a base of operations for other campaigns in the area. In the spring of 1864, Union troops withdrew from Matagorda Bay and the fort was then reoccupied by the Confederates and held until the end of the war. Eastern walls of the fort were destroyed as the shoreline was eroded by a storm in 1868. By 1878, the rest of the 9-foot-high, 20-foot-thick, turf-covered walls had eroded away. Outlying emplacements and rifle pits can still be traced in some areas. Nothing else remains.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online...es/FF/qcf2.html

I thought perhaps it was named in honr of Col. Xavier Blanchard De Bray and they just dropped the "De"

[gonzo1976]

I thought perhaps it was named in honr of Col. Xavier Blanchard De Bray and they just dropped the "De"

Debray was born in 1819 and emigrated to the U.S. in 1848, decades after the bayou got its name.

Yes...that is the source for the James Bray reference. I looked at the HPL catalog and they do not seem to have a copy, even in the Texas Room. The history is in two volumes. I spotted someone who had both volumes for sale online.

Check out this link. I'll send a note and have my contact check it out. I may put a post up on my blog later tonight summarizing what everyone has found so far.

[50_year_native]

Here is the reference from that book. I don't see James Bray, just "Mr. Bray". Maybe someone else looked up that passenger list from New Orleans because it does list the ship, Captain, and date:

Great post, great book page images and thanks a million to all who have pursued this information.

I live 1/2 mile from Bray's Bayou and my first cousin (also a native Houstonian) married a fine young man from the interior (I think San Antone?) a few years ago with the surname of Bray.

Hence my interest, as an amateur local history buff, in where the name of the Bayou came from.

In the Texas Room this past weekend I found a reference to the "Bray family" arriving in Harris County in 1822 and specifying "Brays Bayou" in parentheses. It wasn't an original document but a more or less chronological list of early Harris County settlers derived from other sources. The loose-leaf document was the only entry in a vertical file titled "Harris County - History". The source referred to for the "Bray family" entry in the loose-leaf document was the History of Galveston by Dyer (I have the exact citation at home). I will seek the Dyer History of Galveston as soon as time permits. I also came across a reference to the Brown book (containing the two pages imaged above), but the Texas Room couldn't locate it while I was there.

Obviously, information about this "Bray family" seems very limited and abbreviated. There is no reference to the family (that I can find) in the Handbook of Texas Online. I am still interested in learning more about the family if possible, just to satisfy my curiousity and because they were such early (western) settlers in the area. If I find any more information of value, I will post it here, and of course would and do greatly appreciate any and all efforts by others in this amateur historical pursuit.

Sincerely,

50_year_native

(Amateur local history buff)

[gonzo1976]

Fantastic work, all.

I'm surprised this isn't better known. I would have thought the origins of Bray's Bayou would have been well-known in local history.

Here's a reference in the Handbook of Texas to the James Bray responsible for setting up the town of Refugio:

In 1834 these settlers received their legal allotment of lands from the commissioner, Jos

[gonzo1976]

A tad more on James Bray and Refugio from a source with the local historical society:

According to Hobart Huson's History of Refugio County, James Bray was an early surveyor along with Samuel Addison White and a couple of others. There are several references to Bray in Huson's work.

[sevfiv]

what a fancy signature, with all those loop-de-loops!

[50_year_native]

And this one too:

But is this the same Bray that disembarked from the schooner "Only Son", with his son-in-law, at Matagorda Bay in 1822?

It is certainly possible, but I don't know how likely.

I believe whichever Bray that arrived in Matagorda Bay in 1822 is the one after whom Bray's Bayou is named - but that is just a hunch with very little to back it up.

[isuredid]