"Wharton County, named for brothers William H. and John A. Wharton, is Southwest of Houston on U.S. Highway 59 on the Coastal Plain of southeast Texas at the coastal bend. The county is bounded by Matagorda, Colorado, and Jackson counties and the San Bernard River, which forms its northeastern border and the Fort Bend county line. [...]
Wharton County is in the section of Texas first explored by Europeans. In 1687 René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, traversed the area on the last exploration he made before his death. Alonso De León passed through on his third and fourth trips in search of the La Salle colony in 1688 and 1689, and in 1718 Martín de Alarcón came to inspect East Texas missions after exploring Espiritu Santo Bay. Pedro de Rivera y Villalón crossed the area in 1727, and between 1745 and 1746 Prudencio Orobio y Basterra explored the coastal area. [...]
Wharton County was established after Texas statehood and the Mexican War in 1846 from parts of Matagorda, Jackson, and Colorado counties, taking their best and most fertile land. The act that formed the county provided for its immediate organization and a county seat to be named Wharton and located on the northeast bank of the Colorado River in the east central portion of the county within one of the leagues granted to William Kincheloe. [...]
The first county courthouse was built in 1848 but was so poorly constructed that it was replaced in 1852. Antebellum Wharton County resembled parts of the Deep South, as planters and farmers from states there moved to the region. By 1850 the county had a population of 1,752 living in 112 dwellings; this included 1,242 slaves but no free blacks. In 1858 slaves made up 2,181 of a total population of 2,861. In 1860 Albert Clinton Horton was among Wharton County's largest slaveholders, possessing as many as 170 slaves. One plantation was over 4,500 acres, and the county had 16,784 acres of land under cultivation. In 1859 the value of Wharton County's land was $10.40 per acre, the highest of any other county in Texas; at the time the average land in Texas was $2 per acre. In 1860 the value for Wharton County land went up to $14 per acre. The largest plantation and sugar mill in Texas were located in Wharton County prior to the Civil War, and the 1858 census reported 13,665 cattle there. Because of sugar cane production, Wharton, Fort Bend, Brazoria, and Matagorda counties came to be known as the "Texas sugar bowl." [..]
The Civil War delayed the development of Wharton County. Prior to 1880 the only postal stations in Wharton County were East Bernard, Egypt, New Philadelphia, Quinan, Spanish Camp, Waterville, and Wharton. In the 1880s the influx of Europeans and the extension of railroads stimulated growth in the area. Wharton County's population tripled between 1870 and 1900, from 3,426 to 16,942. In 1910 it was 21,123, of which 12,234 were whites (2,000 were foreign born) and 8,899 blacks. El Campo experienced rapid growth with the 1881 completion of New York, Texas and Mexican Railroad and by 1900 had a population of 856. It doubled to 1,766 by 1920; Swedes, Germans, and Czechs settled there during that time. The Danish settlement at Danevang became a viable community by 1893, but Danes from the northern prairie wheat belt failed to plant successfully; some of the group moved on to California. A group of English and Welsh immigrants were brought in to establish New Philadelphia, but the different farming conditions and the conflicts between them and the open range advocates led most of them to leave Wharton County. Numerous Jewish families immigrated to Wharton County as early as 1850 and founded business establishments; the greatest number moved into Wharton. Eugene T. Heiner was commissioned to design a new three-story courthouse and a three-story jail for county use. A smallpox epidemic in 1898 led to the draining of Caney Creek and the construction of a hospital in Wharton. A county hospital was built in 1937.
Cattle raising replaced the plantation system as Wharton County's major industry after the Civil War and drew significant numbers of Mexicans into the area to serve as herdsmen. Herds were formed as residents bought cattle and rounded up strays that had multiplied on the prairies when access to markets was limited. Abel Head (Shanghai) Pierce took advantage of the times and acquired vast acreage on the west side of the Colorado, with a cattle empire that stretched over three counties, encompassing a half-million acres, of which 30,000 were in Wharton County. [...]"
Excerpts from J. O. Graham's "The Book of Wharton County, Texas" as reported on the Texas State Historical Association's "
Handbook of Texas Online" website.