Wharton: The Texas Sugar Bowl

Wharton sits on the east bank of the Colorado River, named for two brothers who helped win Texas its independence. John Austin Wharton and William Harris Wharton were prominent figures in the Texas Revolution, and this town on the lower Colorado has carried their name since a post office was established here in eighteen forty-seven. The land around Wharton produced something rare for Texas: sugar.

Before the Civil War, this corner of the state, together with Fort Bend, Brazoria, and Matagorda counties, became known as the Texas sugar bowl. The largest plantation and sugar mill in Texas were located right here in Wharton County, fueled by enslaved labor and river-bottom soil that could grow cane as well as cotton. The railroad arrived after the war, and the agricultural economy shifted toward rice and cattle, but the old plantation geography shaped this river country for generations.