The Sugar Land Refinery

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.

The Sugar Land Refinery is a historical marker in Sugar Land, Fort Bend County, dedicated in 1978. It is one of 90 historical markers documented in Fort Bend County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 237 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.6216, -95.6356 near Sugar Land. The nearest cataloged historic site is Sugar Land (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Sugar Land Auditorium, Sugar Land Independent School District No. 17, and Bullhead Convict Labor Camp Cemetery.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5157009072. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.