DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery, out there in Fort Bend County. Now before we get to the prison part — and we will get to the prison part — you have to picture this land the way it looked before any of that. Rich river bottom soil, the kind that'll grow just about anything you dare to put in it.
Cotton, corn, sugar cane. Even a sugar mill running right alongside the fields. This was plantation country, and it ran on the labor of enslaved people.
Then 1865 came, emancipation came, and the plantation owners found themselves staring at all that fertile land and all those empty fields and not nearly enough hands to work either. So they got creative. In 1878, two landowners — L.
A. Ellis and E. H.
Cunningham — went straight to the State of Texas and negotiated a lease. A private prison. Convicts leased out for labor.
The fields kept producing. The arrangement kept going. Five years later, the state pulled the reins back and took control over the prison and its inmates themselves.
The sugar trade thrived. And then in 1908 — and this is where things really start moving — I. H.
Kempner and W. T. Eldridge bought the small town of Sugar Land, created the Imperial Sugar Company, and built themselves a stable company town with a stable workforce to go with it.
Also in 1908 — same year, mind you — the State of Texas purchased 5,235 acres of adjoining land and started the Imperial State Prison Farm. More than 400 inmates. One of Texas' very first state-run prisons.
Now. They called it the Hellhole on the Brazos. That name didn't come from nowhere, and it didn't come from boosterism.
This place and others like it became notorious — notorious — for deplorable inmate treatment and living conditions. The kind of notorious that eventually gets loud enough that the public can't look away anymore. And in 1912, public outcry forced reforms.
That same year, 1912, is where the cemetery record begins. Thirty-one marked graves — inmates and guards both — dating from 1912 all the way to 1943. Some of those markers carry graphic descriptions of how the people buried there died.
By the late 1940s, Texas had changed its practice: all inmates were buried at Huntsville's Prison Unit or in their hometowns. The farm itself kept going, though. It was later called the Central State Prison Farm, and then the Central Unit.
It operated on this ground until 2011, when the state sold part of the land for a new housing development. The City of Sugar Land stepped in and purchased 65 acres — the cemetery included — for parkland, and to make sure that cemetery wasn't swallowed up by whatever came next. Standing in the center of it today is a white cross, surrounded by bricks made by prisoners.
The gate is original. Some sections of the fence are original. Thirty-one graves.
Bricks made by the hands of the people this place once held. That's what's left of the Hellhole on the Brazos — and Fort Bend County made sure it stays.
What the marker says
Prior to the Civil War, this rich river bottom land was known for its cotton, corn and sugar cane crops and sugar mill. With the emancipation of slaves in 1865, area plantation owners struggled to work the fields and mill. In 1878, landowners L. A. Ellis and E. H. Cunningham negotiated a lease with the State of Texas to open a private prison, leasing convicts for labor. Five years later, the state gained control over the prison and inmates. Sugar trade thrived here, and in 1908, I. H. Kempner and W. T. Eldridge bought the small town of Sugar Land, created the Imperial Sugar Company and a stable company town and workforce. Also in 1908, the State of Texas purchased 5,235 acres of adjoining land and started the Imperial State Prison Farm. With more than 400 inmates, it was one of Texas' first state-run prisons. Once dubbed the "Hellhole on the Brazos," this and other Texas prisons became notorious for deplorable inmate treatment and living conditions before public outcry forced reforms in 1912. The cemetery has 31 marked graves of inmates and guards, dating 1912-1943, some with graphic descriptions of their deaths. By the late 1940s, all Texas inmates were buried at Huntsville's Prison Unit or in prisoners' hometowns. Later called the Central State Prison Farm and then Central Unit, the prison farm operated here until 2011 when the state sold part of its land for a new housing development. The City of Sugar Land purchased 65 acres, including the cemetery, for parkland and to ensure the preservation of the cemetery. A white cross, surrounded by prisoner-made bricks, stands in the center of the cemetery; the gate and some sections of the fence are original. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2007