History of Sugar Land, Texas

The history of Sugar Land, Texas, documents the historical events starting with the land grant by Stephen F. Austin to what would later become a company town in the early 1900s and then the fastest growing city in the U.S. state of Texas during the 1990s.

History

Sugar Land's founding

<!-- Unsourced image removed: -->Sugar Land has a heritage tracing its roots back to the original Mexican land grant to Stephen F. Austin. One of the first settlers of the land, Samuel M. Williams, called this land "Oakland Plantation" because there were many different varieties of oaks on the land, such as Pin Oak, Post Oak, Water Oak, Red Oak, and Live Oak. Williams' brother, Nathaniel, purchased the land in 1838. They operated the plantation by growing cotton, corn, and sugarcane. During these early years, the area that is now Sugar Land was the center of social life along the Brazos River. In 1853, Benjamin Terry and William J. Kyle purchased the Oakland Plantation from the S. M. Williams family. Terry is known for organizing Terry's Texas Rangers during the American Civil War and for naming the town. Upon the deaths of Terry and Kyle, Colonel E. H. Cunningham bought the 12,500 acre (51&nbsp;km²) plantation soon after the Civil War and developed the town around his sugar refining plant around 1879 .

Company town

In 1906, the Kempner family of Galveston, under the leadership of Isaac Herbert Kempner and in partnership with William T. Eldridge, purchased the 5,300...
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