Glen Flora

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Glen Flora, out there in Wharton County. Now, every good Texas town has a beginning, and Glen Flora's goes all the way back to the earliest days of Anglo settlement in this part of the state. The land it sits on was part of a grant awarded to Robert H.

Kuykendall, Sr., a member of Stephen F. Austin's old three hundred. That's about as far back as Texas roots go.

The town sits on the east bank of the Colorado River, northwest of Wharton, and that river is going to matter a great deal to this story. Around 1890, a man named C.H. Waterhouse came to Wharton County, moving down from Pennsylvania, and he started buying up large tracts of land on the west bank of the river.

He didn't come alone. Waterhouse brought German families with him, from his home state, and he set about building something serious: a large sugar mill, a pumping plant, and a cotton gin. The sugar mill went by the name the Waterhouse Rice and Sugar Company, and it later became the Wharton County Irrigation Company.

So the man was not thinking small. Now, here's where the east bank enters the picture. When the Cane Belt Railroad came through, running from Sealy all the way to Wharton, a townsite was established in 1898 right there on the east bank of the Colorado, directly across from the Waterhouse holdings.

A prime location, as they say, to access those rail lines. The town needed a name. And this is where an English merchant named William Hood steps in.

Hood owned the largest mercantile store in the place, built in 1900, and it was Hood who suggested the name Glen Flora. A post office opened that same year, 1900. Then in 1902, the Glen Flora Town Company formed, with Waterhouse himself as president.

The company reorganized in 1906, this time with G.C. Gifford taking the president's chair. The railroad itself changed hands more than once.

The Cane Belt sold to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 1903, who then leased to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe in 1905. Rail service eventually ended in 1991, and the rails were removed. Gone.

But before all that, Glen Flora was growing fast. A hotel, a bank, a lumber yard, a movie theater, a telephone company, two cotton gins. The kind of list that tells you a place has arrived.

Then came 1913, and with it, a flood. And as if the river weren't trouble enough, a potato and cane blight moved through as well. Residents began leaving for the cities, and the momentum shifted.

The land, though, had a long memory. In the 1980s, a large commercial fruit orchard was established out there, and just like that, Glen Flora's historic ties to agriculture were restored. The river still runs on the west side, the old Waterhouse holdings somewhere in its memory, and the east bank holds a town that has outlasted railroads, floods, and blights.

That's Glen Flora.

What the marker says

Located on the east bank of the Colorado River northwest of Wharton, Glen Flora was first settled on one of two land grants awarded to Robert H. Kuykendall, Sr., member of Stephen F. Austin’s old three hundred. Around 1890, C.H. Waterhouse moved to Wharton County and purchased large tracts of land on the west bank of the river. Waterhouse brought in German families from his home state of Pennsylvania, established a large sugar mill, pumping plant and cotton gin. The sugar mill, originally the Waterhouse Rice and Sugar Company, later became the Wharton County Irrigation Company. With construction of the Cane Belt Railroad from Sealy to Wharton, the townsite of Glen Flora was established in 1898 on the east bank of the Colorado River across from Waterhouse holdings, a prime location to access rail lines. The name Glen Flora was suggested by English merchant William Hood, owner of Glen Flora’s largest mercantile store, built in 1900. A post office was established in 1900. In 1902, the Glen Flora Town Company formed with Waterhouse as president; it reorganized in 1906 with G.C. Gifford as president. In 1903, the Cane Belt Railroad sold to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad who leased to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe in 1905. Rail service ended in 1991 and the rails were removed. With its close proximity to transportation and farmland, Glen Flora became a fast-growing community with a hotel, bank, lumber yard, movie theater, telephone company, two cotton gins and more. Beginning with the 1913 flood and then the potato and cane blight, residents began to move to urban areas. In the 1980s, a large commercial fruit orchard was established that restored the area’s historic ties to agriculture. (2016)