Site of World War II Prisoner of War Camp

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This piece of ground in Wharton County has seen more lives pass over it than most folks would ever guess, and it all starts with a land grant back in 1824. That year, a man named Martin Allen received this property as part of a grant, and he wasn't just any settler.

Allen was one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred, that original company of colonists who put down roots in Texas before Texas was Texas. Right there, the land has earned a kind of legend just getting started.

Now, nothing stays in one family forever. In the 1840s, Allen's heirs sold most of his land to a man named Albert Clinton Horton. And Horton was no ordinary buyer.

He was a Wharton County planter, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, and, as it happens, the state's first lieutenant governor. The first one. That's the kind of owner who leaves a mark on a place just by standing on it.

Horton's heirs eventually moved the property along too, selling it in 1930 to a group of investors. Their plan was to turn the land into a county fairground, and they built several structures right there on the site to make it happen. A fair organizer later sold the land to the county in 1942.

So by the time the 1940s arrived, this ground had been a colonial land grant, a planter's estate, and a fairground. You'd think it had seen enough history. You'd be wrong.

World War II was underway, and Texas was about to become home to something few people outside the government fully understood at the time. Over fifty thousand German prisoners of war were interned in camps spread throughout the state. Fifty thousand.

Camp Swift, up in Bastrop County, operated a number of branch camps along the Texas Coast, and in 1943 one of those branches was established right here. They called it Camp Wharton. Those old county fair buildings, the same structures put up to host livestock shows and pie contests, were converted for use by the prisoners and the United States Army.

And the prisoners weren't simply waiting out the war behind wire. They worked. They worked as farm laborers throughout Wharton and Colorado counties, out in the fields of the very land that had been farmed and fought over and passed down for well over a century.

A land grant in 1824. A revolution veteran's estate. A fairground.

A prisoner of war camp. Some ground just has a way of collecting history, and this piece of Wharton County has been doing exactly that for a long, long time.

What the marker says

Included in a land grant awarded in 1824 to Martin Allen, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists, this property has had a long and varied history. In the 1840s Allen's heirs sold most of his land to Albert Clinton Horton, Wharton County planter, Texas revolution veteran, and the state's first lieutenant governor. Horton's heirs sold the property in 1930 to a group of investors who planned to develop the area into a county fairground, and several structures were built on the site. Fair organizer sold the land to the county in 1942. During World War II, over 50,000 German prisoners of war were interned in camps throughout Texas. Camp Swift in Bastrop County operated a number of branch camps along the Texas Coast, and in 1943 Camp Wharton was established at this site. The old county fair buildings were converted for use by the prisoners and U. S. Army, and the prisoners worked as farm laborers throughout Wharton and Colorado counties. (1991)