Sugar Land History
Like most of Texas, Sugar Land’s early influences were Native Americans, the Spanish, the Mexican government and Mexican immigrants, and American pioneers. In 1823, Stephen F. Austin was given the charter to settle 300 American families in Texas. The land granted in Fort Bend County was very fertile and set the stage for Sugar Land’s rich agricultural heritage.
Sugar Land found its strength in sugarcane production. As these settlers began farming and creating plantations, sugar became the primary industry. In 1908, a sugar cane refinery built in 1896 was purchased and renamed Imperial Sugar. It was the Imperial Sugar Company that developed the town, modernizing the refinery and building houses for the employees and their families.
The growing of sugar cane ended in 1928. The economic foothold it gave the city has helped increase the population from less than 2,000 back then to today's 117,869 residents.
Since its incorporation as a city in 1959, Sugar Land’s residents live in a master-planned community with many parks and recreational facilities, first-class shopping and medical facilities, and a safe environment, ranking as one of America’s safest cities since 2008. Sugar Land has been recognized as one of America’s Best Places to Live and has been named a Community of Respect by the Anti-Defamation League.
For more information on Sugar Land's history, please visit the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation. We encourage you to sign up on their website for their monthly heritage hikes every second Saturday of the month.
SUGAR LAND FUN FACTS
1. SUGAR LAND HAS BEEN SPELLED BOTH AS SUGAR LAND AND SUGARLAND.
The earliest written record the Heritage Foundation has on file is the 1860 Census. In the census, Sugar Land is spelled with two words. It’s said that when Terry purchased the property, he would always say that this was his sugar land because of all the sugarcane that grew here. During the turn of the century, people spelled Sugar Land with either one or two words. When building the Dust Estate for Sugarland Industries in 1919, the document from the attorney used the one word spelling. It wasn’t until the city’s incorporation in 1959 that the two word spelling for the city was cemented.
2. SANTA ANNA’S ARMY PASSED THROUGH SUGAR LAND ON ITS WAY TO SAN JACINTO.
They passed near present-day Kempner High School and on to a spot roughly where Gillingham Lane intersects Highway 90A.
3. THE BUFFALO BAYOU, BRAZOS, AND COLORADO WAS THE FIRST RAILROAD IN TEXAS.
The BBB&C Railroad has changed ownership and operated under many names since the 1850s, but the Southern Pacific track that runs through Sugar Land today follows the same course laid by the BBB&C Railroad back in 1853.
4. SUGAR LAND WAS ONCE THE LOCATION OF A PAPER MILL.
Edward H. Cunningham owned and operated two sugar mills and a refinery in Sugar Land before he sold out to I.H. Kempner, Sr. and William T. Eldridge, Sr. in 1908. They would eventually develop this enterprise to Imperial Sugar Company. One little known aspect of Cunningham’s enterprise was a paper mill which converted a by-product of milled sugar cane into a thick paper, much like kraft, or heavy, brown wrapping paper.
5. SUGAR LAND ONCE HAD ITS OWN DAIRY AND CREAMERY.
Sugar Land was once the location of two dairies. One was located on the Edward H. Cunningham estate near the intersection of Brooks and Guenther Streets south of Highway 90A. The second dairy was located between Ulrich Street and Oyster Creek behind today’s Nalco plant. The dairy cattle grazed on land where today’s Constellation Field is located. The dairy continued operations until the late 1940s. ELDRIDGE ROAD WAS ONCE KNOWN AS KPRC ROAD. Before it was renamed, Eldridge Road was known as KPRC Road because in 1929 KPRC Radio had a transmitter tower on the east side of the road just north of Highway 90A.