The Worsham and Landry families came to Texas, then part of Mexico from Alabama in 1829. Israel Worsham's parents, Jeremiah and Catherine Landrum Worsham, received Headright grant # 5, (a league and labor of land), in Stephen F. Austin's colony. Israel, born in 1820, received 320 acres of land in Montgomery County in the Republic of Texas in 1839. He was elected to the Sixth Texas legislature in 1855-56, and was in the Montgomery County Home Guard in the U.S. Civil War. After the war, he represented Montgomery, Grimes, and Brazos counties for the House of Representatives, in the Eleventh Texas Legislature (1866), where he helped sponsor an act for the punishment of vagrants. In 1867, he wrote the description of Montgomery County for the Texas Almanac . His home, The Worsham Place, was on the old Post Road to Houston; the two-story Greek Revival House was known for its hospitality.
Israel and his wife, Emily Womack Worsham, had five children: Ophelia Frances, Alice Tabitha, Mattie Myrtella, Josephine, and Jefferson Davis Worsham. Israel died in 1882 and was buried in the family cemetery on his plantation.
From the guide to the Israel Worsham Family Papers MS 144., 1842-1879, 1975, (University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections)
