DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Sugar Land Refinery in Fort Bend County — so let's set the record straight and let the story breathe a little. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, with Stephen F. Austin's colonists.
Back in the 1820s, they brought sugar cane into Fort Bend County, and that single act set a chain of events in motion that would roll on for well over a century. Now, the Sugar Land area was once part of something called Oakland Plantation. Two brothers — Nathaniel Williams, born in 1800, and Matthew Williams, born in 1805 — planted sugar cane there around 1840.
For a few years they let it grow, and then in 1843 they started processing it. No fancy machinery, mind you — a horse-powered mill and open-air cooking kettles. You can almost smell that syrup on the air.
Ten years on, in 1853, the plantation and mill changed hands. The buyers were William J. Kyle, born in 1803, and Benjamin F.
Terry, born in 1821. These two didn't stand still. They improved the mill, and they pushed hard for a railroad to come through the area — which they named Sugar Land.
That name stuck. Now, Benjamin Terry is a name worth saying twice, because the man's story takes a sharp turn. He later helped organize a Confederate cavalry unit that history would come to call Terry's Texas Rangers — famed is the word the marker uses, and it earns it.
But Terry himself was killed in the Civil War, which ran from 1861 to 1865. He never saw what Sugar Land became. After the war, the operation passed to Edward H.
Cunningham, born in 1835. Cunningham didn't just keep the mill running — he expanded it into a full refinery. That is a meaningful step up.
A mill processes what's in front of it; a refinery is a different kind of ambition. Then comes 1907, and two more names enter the picture. W.
T. Eldridge, born in 1862, and a Galveston businessman named I. H.
Kempner, Sr., born in 1873, purchased the refinery together. They looked at the situation — local sugar cane was available only seasonally and was declining in the early 1900s — and made a decision. They began importing raw sugar so the refinery could run year-round.
That is the kind of pivot that keeps an enterprise alive. Kempner named the resulting company for the Imperial Hotel in New York City. Imperial Sugar Company.
And the City of Sugar Land grew right alongside it. By the 1970s, the Imperial Sugar Company was producing more than three million pounds of refined cane sugar every single day. Three million pounds.
Daily. Started with a horse walking in circles around a mill in 1843. That, friends, is a Texas story.
What the marker says
Stephen F. Austin's colonists brought sugar cane to Fort Bend County in the 1820s. The Sugar Land area was once part of Oakland Plantation, where Nathaniel (1800-84) and Matthew Williams (1805-52) planted sugar cane about 1840. They began processing the cane in 1843 using a horse-powered mill and open-air cooking kettles. In 1853 the plantation and mill were purchased by William J. Kyle (1803-64) and Benjamin F. Terry (1821-61). They improved the mill and promoted a railroad for the area, which they named Sugar Land. Terry later helped organize the famed Confederate cavalry unit, Terry's Texas Rangers, and was killed in the Civil War (1861-65). After the war, the operation was sold to Edward H. Cunningham (1835-1912), who expanded the sugar mill into a refinery. W. T. Eldridge (1862-1932) and Galveston businessman I. H. Kempner, Sr. (1873-1967) purchased the refinery in 1907. They began importing raw sugar to operate the refinery year-round because local cane was available only seasonally and in decreasing quantities in the early 1900s. Named by Kempner for the Imperial Hotel in New York City, the Imperial Sugar Company and the City of Sugar Land have grown steadily. During the 1970s, the Imperial Sugar Company produced more than three million pounds of refined cane sugar daily.