This plaque on a Texas pink granite monument placed by the Texas Society of the Daughters of the American Colonists (not to be confused with the American Society of the Colonial Dames) proclaims this historic factory building west of Sugar Land the center of the sugar industry in Texas and site of the first sugar refinery in the state -- but is doesn't tell the entire story.
The waymarked marker reads as follows:
"[Logo of the Daughters of the American Colonists]
The center of the sugar industry Texas colonial days and the site of the first sugar refinery in Texas located by S. M. Williams, on land granted to him by the Mexican government.
Marked by the Texas Society
Daughters of the American Colonists
February 15, 1952"
The roots of the Texas sugar industry are pretty shameful. The Texas sugar industry got its start on S. J. William's Oakland plantation, where black slaves grew, harvested, and processed sugar. After slavery had been abolished, the sugar industry still needed a large supply of extremely cheap labor. Beginning in 1873, the State of Texas became an industry partner, supplying countless mostly black convicts to do the hard work of growing, harvesting, and bundling sugarcane for Imperial Sugar.
By 1909, the State of Texas formalized the relationship when it opened the Imperial State Farm, a prison with the capacity of 900 men, next to the Imperial sugarcane refinery. Mot Texas prison farms operated to supply the state with food for prisoners, but this one used inmate labor to grow, harvest and bundle large quantities of sugar cane for delivery at favorable rates to the Imperial Sugar processing plant nearby.
You're not going to see that unseemly and exploitative start to the Imperial Pure Cane Sugar Company on their "official" history on their website, See: (
visit link)
"IMPERIAL SUGAR LEGACY
Our rich history began in Southeast Texas in 1843 as the Oakland Plantation. The plantation's sugar crop had grown large enough to justify the installation of a commercial raw sugar grinding mill, establishing the site of the future Imperial Sugar Company in Sugar Land, Texas. The plantation continued to grow and increase its output of raw sugar to the surrounding regions. By 1883, a 600-ton raw sugar mill was completed and named the "Imperial Mill." In 1896, construction began on a cane sugar refinery in Sugar Land to convert the mill's raw sugar output to 100,000 pounds per day of white refined sugar.
Shortly after the turn of the century, the primary plantations of Sugar Land were purchased by the Kempner family, an affluent and well-respected family who had established themselves in the area. After the purchase, the Kempner family transferred the title of those properties to a private company they had formed, the Imperial Sugar Company. Soon thereafter, the Imperial Sugar Company was incorporated."
It is left to others to tell the fuller, more bitter story of the Imperial Sugar Company in Texas. One former partner, the State of Texas, acknowledges its role in the early Texas sugar industry through a historic marker erected outside its former prison, opened as in 1909 as the Imperial Prison Farm, less than a mile from the Imperial Sugar Mill. The prison was renamed the Central State Farm in the 1930. The state marker reads as follows:
"Texas Prison System Central State Farm Main Building
Central State Farm's roots trace to the late 1870s, when the original 5235 acres of the sugar plantation here were worked by convict labor. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, public sentiment largely supported a self-sustaining prison system, with no state funds for facilities or operations. Beginning in 1878, Edward H. Cunningham and Littleberry A. Ellis leased prison labor from the state. They housed prisoners here on a sugarcane plantation. Ellis' land, which came to be called "Sartartia," developed with the construction of an onsite mill named the Imperial Mill.
Despite harsh living conditions at such farm camps around Texas, the leasing program continued until the 1910s. The plantation and mill operation at this site were bought in 1907 by the Imperial Sugar Company; the state bought the plantation in 1908 and renamed it Imperial State Prison Farm. The Texas Legislature agreed in the late 1920s to economic reform measures that initiated prison industrial operations, led to the classification of convicts based on rehabilitative theory and improved convict living conditions. In 1930, construction on the Central State Prison Farm facilities began at this site.
The Austin firm of Gieseke and Harris designed the new buildings; Bertram Gieseke's father, noted architecture professor F.E. Gieseke, served as a consultant on materials and techniques, which centered on poured, reinforced concrete technology. The main building, comprised of administrative offices and dormitories, was completed in 1932 as the first modernized structure in the Texas prison system. The Art Moderne design features stepped pilasters, chamfered corners, a square tower with pyramidal roof, and metal casement windows. Today, it stands as a reminder of 20th-century prison reforms.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2003"
The Central State Farm was renamed Central Unit in the 1960s, and closed in 2011.
From Wikipedia: (
visit link)
" The Central Unit (C, previously the Imperial State Prison Farm and the Central State Prison Farm) was a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) men's prison in Sugar Land, Texas. The approximately 325.8-acre (131.8 ha) facility is 2 miles (3.2 km) from central Sugar Land on U.S. Highway 90A. The unit first opened in April 1909. The unit had 950 beds for men. The unit was adjacent to Sugar Land Regional Airport, with the runway between two parts of the prison property.[3] The Central Unit was the only state prison within the city limits of Sugar Land.
In August 2011, the TDCJ announced that it would be the first prison in Texas to close and not be replaced. Today, most of the former prison plantation land at its largest extent makes up the Telfair master planned community, which the real estate development company Newland Communities bought from the State of Texas in 2002.
History
Correctional facilities first opened in the Imperial Sugar property in 1878, when the state convict lease to private companies. The State of Texas bought the 5,200-acre (2,100 ha) area in 1908. The Imperial State Prison Farm, one of the first penal institutions owned by the State of Texas opened in 1909 in the Imperial Sugar plantation. The state had purchased the land from Imperial Sugar in 1908. Originally it had 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) and was the hub of the Texas state correctional agriculture production. In 1930 the facility was renamed the Central State Prison Farm. The name "Central" originates from the prison's status as the central farming and distribution point of agricultural goods from correctional facilities for many years.[9]
Construction of a new unit of the Central Farm funded by the 41st Texas Legislature began in late 1930. The $350,000 unit was completed in late 1932 and consisted of 12 acres (4.9 ha) of land, including a main building with administration and inmate housing and an industrial facilities building with a canner, meatpacking plant, and powerhouse. The state intended for Central to become the central intake and rehabilitation prison in the prison system.[6] In the mid-1930s Central had nearly 700 prisoners. In 1935 Central housed White and African American prisoners. In the 1950s the prison had over 1,000 inmates. In 1963, before racial desegregation occurred, the facility housed first offenders and white male prisoners under 25 years of age, and Central Unit II housed male African American second offenders under the age of 25.
In 1991 3,700 acres (1,500 ha) of land was transferred to the Texas Department of Transportation for the construction of Texas State Highway 99 (Grand Parkway) and other highways; much of that land included territory that was originally a part of the Central Unit. By 2007 surrounding development over the years reduced the prison to 336 acres (136 ha).
In 2000 the prison had the "Texas Fresh Approach" program, a collaborative developed by the TDCJ, Miller Brewing Co., and the Texas Association of Second Harvest Food Banks. As part of the program, prisoners grew vegetables which were sent to food banks throughout Texas. The TDCJ officials said that prisoners learned about the value of hard work and helping others. Miller paid for the transportation of vegetables in the "Fighting Hunger in Texas" program.
Closure
By 2007 residential development began to surround the prison. . . . The City of Sugar Land made moving the facility one of its main priorities for the 2007 legislative session. . . . By 2008 the city and the state were conducting a joint study researching whether the TDCJ should close the Central Unit and sell the land. Mayor of Sugar Land Dave Wallace said "Let's just say that a prison is not the highest and best use for that land right now.". . . In mid-2011 the State of Texas had a severe budget shortfall, and the shortfall convinced state legislators that they needed to close the unit. On Monday May 30, 2011, the regular session of the 82nd Texas Legislature concluded. The legislature voted to close the Central Unit by removing funding on September 1 of that year.. . . In August 2011, Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced that the prison will be closing. Spokesperson Michelle Lyons said it will become the first prison in Texas history to close and not be replaced. . . .
Cemetery
The Imperial State Farm Cemetery, a small prison cemetery located on the south side of U.S. Highway 90A in the northwest part of Telfair, has graves of deceased prisoners. The cemetery, also known as the Old Imperial Farm Cemetery, has at least 33 graves, with the earliest three dated from 1912. Most graves belong to African American inmates, the earliest of whom were arrested for trumped up charges under the discriminatory Black Codes and forced to labor for private companies under the practice of convict leasing widespread in the South after the end of slavery after the American Civil War. At least one grave remarks that the inmate drowned while attempting to escape. Three graves are post dated to the 1930s.
The cemetery was once open to the public, but is now surrounded by two fences with the inner one locked to protect the site. It was declared an Historic Texas Cemetery in 2007. The city of Sugar Land announced in 2012 plans to build a park on the surrounding undeveloped land, with plans drawn up the same year. The park would include the cemetery with a walkway encircling it. However, the failed passage of a bond proposition for the park halted the project in November 2013.
The Texas Historical Commission-designated caretaker of the cemetery and former Texas Department of Corrections employee, Reginald Moore, has criticized the City of Sugar Land and state of Texas for attempting to erase the history of the Black Codes. Moore, who is also the founder of the Texas Slave Descendant Society, and others such as anthropologist Fred McGhee have called for commemoration of the graveyard and its occupants. Sugar Land officials denied the claims of covering up the racial history of the city, but said that a historical marker would be erected at the site of the cemetery would memorialize injustices against African Americans in the Texas prison system during the late 1800s and early 1900s. . . .
Notable inmates
Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly)"