DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Back in 1824, three men from the Old Three-Hundred — David Fitzgerald, Thomas Barnett, and Moses Shipman — received land grants in this stretch of what would become Fort Bend County. Three men, one piece of country, and a whole lot of Texas history still waiting to happen.
Now, these weren't men who sat still. Fitzgerald would go on to fight at Anahuac in 1832. Barnett would put his name on the Texas Declaration of Independence.
You don't get much more Texas than that. But the land itself — that's where the real story starts quietly buildin'. There was a bluff.
A northeastern high bluff overlooking Clear Lake. And sitting up on that bluff, you had something the mid-1800s needed more than almost anything else: an ample supply of water for steam engines. You put water and steam engines together and you know what follows — railroads.
And follow they did, right here, by the mid-1800s. Duke became the terminus of the Sugar Land Railway. End of the line, the loading point, the place where the sugarcane came to meet its destiny.
The community grew up around that purpose — a store, a hotel, a livestock pen, sugar mills. A full little world humming along on the northeastern bluff of Clear Lake. Now, every place worth its name has got a name worth knowin'.
This one was named for Duke Hessey — the storekeeper. Not a general, not a land baron, not a man who signed declarations. The storekeeper.
There's something quietly Texas about that. Duke had a post office starting in 1883, and a man named J.R. Fenn served as its first Postmaster.
That post office kept the community connected all the way to 1922. And then — like so many places that burned bright along a railroad line — Duke faded. The marker doesn't dress it up.
Today, Duke Cemetery is the only remnant of this once-thriving community. The store is gone. The hotel, the sugar mills, the livestock pen — gone.
Even the railroad that made it all possible. What's left is the ground where people were laid to rest, up on that same bluff that drew settlers and steam engines and sugarcane a long, long time ago. Sometimes a cemetery is the loudest thing a community ever says.
What the marker says
In 1824, Old Three-Hundred settlers David Fitzgerald, Thomas Barnett and Moses Shipman received land grants in this area. Fitzgerald fought at Anahuac in 1832; Barnett signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. This location on the northeastern high bluff of Clear Lake, an ample supply of water for steam engines, led to the construction of railroads here by the mid-1800s. Duke was terminus of the Sugar Land Railway for loading sugarcane. The area developed as a major shipping point with a store, hotel, livestock pen, and sugar mills. It was named for Duke Hessey, the storekeeper. Duke had a post office from 1883 to 1922; the first Postmaster was J.R. Fenn. Today, Duke Cemetery is the only remnant of this once-thriving community. (2008)