Historic Matagorda County, Volume 1 Page: 97

                                
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Peter Thorp
(1828-1892)

Elizabeth Sterry, married Carl (Charles) Nolte, May 8,
1873; her twin, Christopher William Sterry, married
Lucretia Dunbar, May 25, 1874. James Sterry was
born in 1856, and Julia Sterry was born May 2, 1860,
and died October 7, 1892. She never married.
Mrs. Nancy Sterry died January 20, 1900, and was
buried in the Sterry plot of the Matagorda Cemetery.'
Jean W. Richardson
OWEN H. STOUT
Owen H. Stout came from Kentucky to Texas in
1822. He signed an oath of allegiance to the Mexican
government and also participated in colonial election
in April, 1824.1
On July 24, 1824, Stout and his partner, Benjamin
Rawls, received title to a sitio of land in Matagorda
County as members of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three
Hundred" families.2 The land was situated in the north-
eastern part of the county on Caney Creek. The
census of 1826 listed Stout as a farmer, single, and age
25-40.3 Stout and other Austin colonists traveled to
San Antonio in August, 1826, and accused Martin de
Leon of robbing and abusing them.4
Owen Stout is probably the person named Stout,
who, in April, 1830, was at Nacogdoches with Francis
W. Johnson pursuing a fugitive from San Felipe.5
PETER THORP
Peter Thorp was born in Greensville County, Virgi-
nia, in 1828, and came to Texas in the 1840's with his
two brothers, Henry and John L. Thorp. He was a
prominent lawyer, with his brother Henry, in Mata-
gorda and was county tax assessor for many years.'
Peter died October 6, 1892, of consumption, and his
funeral services were held in Christ Church, Mata-
gorda, on October 7, 1892.2 Neither he nor his brother
Henry ever married.

Colonel John L. Thorp was born in Greensville
County, Virginia, in 1811, and had a large plantation
on Caney Creek. He raised both cotton and sugar cane,
and had nearly one hundred slaves to do the work.3 He
and his wife, Elizabeth A. (Stewart) Thorp, had one
child, May, who was born in 1857. John died August 3,
1867, leaving his large estate to his wife and daughter,
naming his two brothers as administrators.4
Elizabeth Thorp died in 1875, leaving a $10,000 insur-
ance policy as well as land. She, too, named her two
brothers-in-law as administrators of her estate and
guardians of daughter May.5
Henry Thorp, born in Greensville County in 1830,
was his brother's law partner as well as county treas-
urer from 1862 to 1866. His will was probated on
October 26, 1875.
CHARLES NATHAN TILTON
Charles Nathan Tilton, born December 11, 1799, in
New Hampton, Strafford County (now part of Bel-
knap County), New Hampshire, was undoubtedly the
son of Green and Judith (Favor) Tilton.
The exact time he came to New Orleans, Louisiana,
and then to the Texas coast is not known. Family
tradition has it that he was a cabin boy on one of Jean
Laffite's ships and later a bosun's mate, and that on one
occasion, when they were eluding capture, they brought
their boat into the mouth of Old River in Chambers
County, a well-known Laffite hideaway. Undoubtedly
this is where he met his future wife, whose parents lived
on Old River. This accounts for his return from Mata-
gorda County following the sale of his land on the
Matagorda Peninsula to Samuel Maverick in 1847.
Charles Tilton had bought a tract of land belonging
to Hamilton L. Cook, the original grantee. This tract of
land is described as being about midway of the Mata-
gorda Peninsula in deed from Charles Tilton to Samuel
Maverick "102 acres of land with all improvements
thereon" dated March 27, 1847. It is also described as
"Tiltona" by Maverick.1
Notice is given in the Weekly Dispatch, Matagorda,
May 11, 1844, that the assessor of taxes in Matagorda
would be at the home of Charles Tilton "on the Penin-
sula" on the 10th of June of that year. This was
undoubtedly at "Tiltona," which was sold to Samuel
Maverick. Some said the land was "traded" to Maver-
ick to whom Tilton owed a debt and Maverick took
cattle and land in payment of the debt. This included
many unbranded calves or "mavericks" as they were
later called.
In Yankees in the Republic of Texas, it is recorded
by Tilton himself that he came to Texas in 1829. He
could have been here much earlier and returned on the
voyage of the Little Zoe from New Orleans to Mata-

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