John Marie Durst (1797–1851) was born on the frontier in Arkansas, and was an early American settler, military veteran, and politician in Louisiana and Texas.

French, Spanish and various Native American languages were spoken in this region in addition to English, reflecting its different colonial history.

Durst also served with the Republic of Texas militia under Major General Thomas J. Rusk in actions against the Kickapoo and Cherokee peoples in the region.

That year the region and much more former French territory west of the Mississippi River was acquired by the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.

[1] In 1806, Jacob Durst moved to Nacogdoches, Texas, then part of Spanish Mexico, with son John Marie and two of his older brothers.

[1] When the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition captured Nacogdoches on August 12, 1812, Davenport became the quartermaster for the filibuster, supplying both arms and materiel, as well as rallying volunteers to join the cause.

As a result of his swap with Benigno, in April 1834 Durst received a Mexican land grant for five leagues, which was surveyed in three separate tracts in Houston, Nacogdoches and Anderson counties.

[Durst was the successor to the landholdings of the only official Indian trading establishment licensed by the Spanish government in the Province of Texas, known as the House of Barr and Davenport].

The fieldnotes of this survey stipulated that the northern corner should fall on the Arroyo de las Ruinas [Ruins Creek].

[13] This was likely known for the ruins of the old Barr Rancho headquarters, burnt by order of Col. Ignacio Elizondo of the Spanish Royal Army, during his operations in the aftermath of the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition and the rout of insurgents at the Battle of Medina on 18 August 1813.

[14] In 1838, Durst was commissioned as a captain in the Republic of Texas militia, serving under Major General Thomas J. Rusk.

The young John Henninger Reagan, at the time a deputy surveyor, also served as a private tutor in the 1830s to the Durst children.