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Plethora of historic plantations clot areas landscapeBy Marie Beth JonesBaliey PlantationBailey Plantation has been somewhat forgotten through the years in the attention given to James Briton (Brit) Bailey’s eccentricities, his burial, and the legends concerning his ghost.Different sources give various dates for Bailey’s arrival, but a descendant, Josephine Polley Golson, says Brit and his family arrived in 1818, three years before the first of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred Colonists.They came overland, traveling in four wagons containing their supplies, furniture and family, including seven children.I.T. Tinsley, one of the early colonists, described the area between the Brazos River and Oyster Creek as being almost without undergrowth, and covered in season with wild rice. In this area, Bailey chose a spot on a ridge overlooking a shallow pond. A nearby grove was dominated by pecan and oak trees.The settlers set up camp at what is now known as Bailey’s Prairie, and began building a low, rambling house of logs, pickets, and a few handsawn boards, located beside a large live oak tree. Slave cabins were constructed entirely of pickets.Like most cabins built in Texas during that era, a dogtrot - a wide, open hall extending down the center of the building — provided ventilation and access to the two rooms on each side. Steps led to another room in the loft, and a wide gallery extended across the front of the house.Bailey’s house became something of a landmark dong the coast after he covered it with bright ted paint.Ann Raney Coleman, who lived at the Bailey place after Bailey’s death, mentioned “a pecan orchard about a quarter of a mile long (that) led like an avenue up to the house.” She added that before entering the grove it was necessary to cross a pond that was sometimes deep enough to sail a boat.Peach Point■William Joel Bryan, Stephen F. Austin’s nephew, began developing Durazno Plantation as a young man and continued living and working there for the rest of his life.Adjoining the property of Bryan’s mother, Emily Austin Perry, was the remainder of the 32,469-acre “Peach Point tract” land grant awarded to Stephen F. Austin as part of his payment for settling the first 300 families in Texas. Bryan became owner of a tract he would name Durazno, and on which he would establish a cotton and sugar plantation and raise cattle.Like many Brazoria County plantations, Durazno produced cotton during the 1840s, but Bryan andother residents of that day also utilized various othermeans to earn money. Among these, Bryan sold wood for steamship fuel. The ships also picked up all .kinds of produce supplied by Bryan, including oys-'*ters from the rich oyster beds nearby.In the 1850$, Bryan built a steam sugar mill and began to process the sugar cane he grew on the plantation. He produced 150 hogsheads in 1858, an amount considered about average for Texas sugar mills that year.A hurricane in 1875 cost Bryan an estimated $30,000 in direct losses, including a great many head of livestock. Ke continued to operate the plantation, however, survived another mighty storm in 1900, and died at Durazno in 1903. He was buried in the family cemetery at Peach Point.The house Bryan had built was tom down in 1911and either partially or entirely rebuiltThe house remained in the Bryan family until 1928, when it was acquired by RJBJL. Stringfellow, a prominent Brazoria County cattleman. Its restoration began in 1988 by Mrs. Stringfellow’s nephew, Perciya! Beacroft Jr., who said little remained at that time of the original structure built by Bryan.Durazno was listed in November of 1980 among the additions to the National Register of Historic Places, and Beacroft had planned to open the property to the public as a memorial to the area’s past.But on July 19,1991, the historic plantation house burned to the ground. Despite this loss, however, some reminders of Durazno’s past are available for public viewing. These include original furniture and other artifacts from the plantation house, which are located in “The Durazno Room” at the Brazoria County Historical Museum.Jackson PlantationThe Republic of Texas was in the grip of an economic depression in 1838, when Abner Jackson and his family arrived from South Carolina.Jackson, an enterprising planter and businessman, moved to Brazoria County, where he established the Retrieve Plantation in 1839.Three years later Jackson opened the plantation he called “the Lake Place,” and which later became known as the Jackson or Lake Jackson Plantation. The first home the Jacksons built at Lake Jackson was of logs. Elm and ash, both which were numerous at the lake, were probably used in this construction.By 1850 the Jacksons* circumstances had improved greatly. According to the census of that year they had 86 slaves. In 1851, the Jacksons moved from their cabin into a mansion of brick so heavily plastered with cement that it looked like solid stone.The cost of this residence, exclusive of the slave, labor used in its construction, was over $25,000, according to Abner Strobei, a grandson of Margaret Jackson by her first marriage.Probably because of the insulation provided by the thick brick and concrete walls, the Jacksons’ new home was cool in summer and retained the heat from the big fireplaces to provide comfortable warmth in winter.Containing 12 rooms, built in an I shape, the Georgian design, two-story plantation house faced north, toward the lake. Strobei wrote that brick pillars lined most of the six galleries, but pictures show that the upper gallery and front gable were supported by four large Doric columns. An octagonal cupola with a steep roof topped the house.Brick walkways led through the beautifully landscaped grounds to the garden, and to fine orchards providing peaches, pears, quince, plums, grapes and strawberries.The horseshoe-shaped lake had been improved with an artificial island said to have cost $10,000. The lake was abundantly stocked with fish, and Jackson kept several boats available for the use of his family and guests.Sugar was planted on 200 acres at Lake Jackson in 1849, and a concrete-plastered brick sugar house was built that year. For the first several years, the mill was operated by horse power, but by 1858 it had been converted to steam.Until the beginning of the Civil War, the Jacksonholdings, which included 70,000 acres of land and three sugar plantations, were “the finest and highest developed” in the county.A long-running quarrel between Abner Jackson’s sons, George and John, led to the eventual destruction of the plantation. In 1868, the brothers argued for the last time and Georgs shot John six times in the chest George Jackson was indicted for murder, but the case was postponed several times, and before it came up for trial, George was dead. Under the terms of Major Jackson’s will John had been disinherited, but tire will disappeared and was never probated.Tom asunder by the family scandal, the beautiful old house slowly deteriorated, and was destroyed in a 1932 storm.Sweeny PlantationDating back more than 150 years, the John Sweeny Jr. plantation house was, until very recently, the property of the original owner’s descendants.Sweeny was just 17 years of age when he moved to Brazoria County in 1833 with his parents, John Sweeny Sr. and Nancy Arm Fuller Smith Sweeny, to settle on Chance’s Prairie, about nine miles west of Columbia.A large number of slaves accompanied the family, which at that time included seven sons and either one or two daughters.Since land grants in that era were based in part on the size of a man’s family, the elder Sweeny’s grant was large. This land was split among his children.John Sweeny Sr. was among the 35 colonists who attended the meeting at Columbia on Dec. 25, 1835 in which those attending voted unanimously in favor of a declaration of independence.Sweeny was among those who produced sugar in Brazoria County before 1840, though his operation was never as large as that of many others, such as Robert and D.G. Mills, whose Bynum Place and Lowwood Plantation .produced a total of 1,338 hogsheads in 1852. Sweeny’s production that year was 60 hogsheads.The house, built by Sweeny slaves in 1836 or 1837, still stands at the same site, though some alteration of the original appearance have occurred in the past 30 years.Constructed of cypress and ash and placed on an elevated site, facing south, Sweeny had the house built in typical frontier fashion, with a dogtrot through the center and a 50-foot gallery across the front.A center wing containing the kitchen extended northward, arid a cistern to the east of the kitchen was shaded by a large live oak tree. A big bell, used to call the plantation hands, was attached to the west end of the frame building.Slaves were housed in 30 cabins, also made of cypress. -Brick, nails and wood for the buildings came from the plantation itself, and the home was the center of a bustling community, containing not only the main residence and quarters, but also a sugar mill; its own sawmill, used to produce lumber as it was needed; a kiln for briek-maMng; a commissary;a smithy; a cotton gin; and even a post office.In 1932, a terrible hurricane swept through the county and the brick house collapsed during the storm.In January of 1990, the plantation house, 840 acres of land, and the slave cemetery still used bydescendants of the plantation’s slaves were sold to the Phillips Petroleum Co. by John Holland Bannister, a great-great-grandson of John Sweeny Jr.Bannister eventually sold the place and the story of the sale was picked up by wire services and ran in newspapers throughout the country. A New York paper reported that moving crews had packed “a Bible dated 1788 and chairs that slaves crafted from the wood of trees felled nearby.”In close proximity to the modem Phillips plant, an official Texas Historical Marker still attests to the historic significance of the property.And a living monument - the huge five oak tree that once shaded the kitchen cistern - still spreads its massive limbs above the grass, as it did when John Sweeny Jr. first entered his new home some 155 years ago.Varner HoggAs the only survivor among the elaborate residences built by Brazoria County plantation owners before the Civil War, the Greek Revival mansion at Vamer-Hogg State Park has become a symbol of the most romantic era of the county’s pastMartin Varner, the plantation’s first owner, joined Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred colonists in 1822.By 1849, the Patton Place, as it was then known,had grown into a-thriving sugar plantation which thatyear produced 275,000 pounds (275 hogsheads) of sugar .and 22,000 gallons of molasses, ranking fifth among the 23 sugar producers in Brazoria County.The title changed hands several times in the years that followed. Texas prison inmates were hired to work at the plantation for several years, working 10-hour days, 26 days per month, cultivating a sugarcrop and making brick as well as raising com and some cotton. The plantation owners paid the state about $1.15 per day per prisoner in lease fees, food and shelter.In 1901, former Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg paid $30,000 cash for the plantation, changing the name to “The Vamer,” and telling family and close friends he planned to make it a model for progressive fanning.After Hogg’s death in 1906, his eldest son, Will, became executor of the estate. He sold all the livestock, and had the house, bam, and outbuildings next to the main house repainted a dull brick red with white trimmings and greeii root. Surrounding shed-houses were whitewashed.In 1916 the main house and other buildings were refurbished, and a Houston architect completed drawings for extensive remodeling of the main house and kitchen. Those plans were not carried out for three more years, however, and then only with numerous changes.Throughout the next 35 years, the Hogg children retainedJhe plantation house and ground^. as a weekend retreat for themselves and the? friends. Following the deaths of Will Hogg in . 0, MikeHogg in 1941, and Tom Hogg in 1948, iina Hogg became sole owner of the surface rights to the plantation, while her brothers’ widows shared in mineral rights and royalties from the property.In 1953, “Miss Ima” wrote to the Texas State Parks Board, stating that she and her brothers had always intended to offer the Vamer house and a small park around it to the state. Negotiations for the transfer began in 1956, and the state accepted the property that year, and it was dedicated March 24, 1958.
Newspaper Details
Brazosport Facts
Clute, Texas, US
Sun, Jul 21, 1996
Page 111
Full Page
Clipped by
Houston P.
TX, USA 14 Sep 2019
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