DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some families leave a mark on a place. The Groce family?
They arrived with wagon trains and cotton gins and ferry boats, and they practically built a county before the county knew what hit it. It starts with one man: Jared E. Groce, born 1782, died 1836.
He came to Texas in 1822, and he did not come light. His wagon train was large — elaborate plantation equipment rolling into a frontier that had seen nothing of the sort. Whatever Texas was before Jared Groce showed up, it was about to get a lesson in how a man plants roots.
He built two plantations. One he called Bernardo. The other, Groce's Retreat.
The family had an early cotton gin out here, and a ferry too — two things that tend to make a man indispensable to his neighbors real fast. Now here's where the story takes a turn that echoes all the way to San Jacinto. On the eve of that famous victory, General Houston's army needed to move.
They needed to eat. The Groce family provided both — rations and ferry service to Houston's forces at the moment it counted most. That is the kind of contribution that gets quietly folded into the big history, easy to overlook, harder to forget.
Jared wouldn't live to see Texas become a republic. He died in 1836, the very year everything changed. But the family carried on.
The heirs built more — Pleasant Hill, Eagle Island, and Liendo. Liendo is the only Groce mansion still standing, sitting two miles northwest of the marker, which is the sort of thing that makes you want to go look. Descendants of that wagon-train family went on to contribute leadership to the state of Texas — a state that, in a small but very real way, they helped bring into being.
Some families plant cotton. The Groces planted history.
What the marker says
Pioneers in this Texas area. Had early cotton gin and ferry. Founder of family was Jared E. Groce (1782-1836), who came to Texas in 1822. His large wagon train brought elaborate plantation equipment. Groce built "Bernardo" and "Groce's Retreat." Heirs built "Pleasant Hill," "Eagle Island" and "Liendo" (the only surviving Groce mansion, 2 mi. NW of here). A contribution of the family to the cause of Texas freedom was providing rations and ferry service to army of Gen. Houston on eve of San Jacinto victory. Descendants have contributed leadership to the state.