Hawkins Ranch | |
---|---|
Location | Matagorda, Texas, U.S. |
Founded | 1846 |
Built for | James Boyd Hawkins |
The Hawkins Ranch, also known as Hawkins Plantation, [1] is a historic site and currently a cattle ranch, located in Matagorda County, Texas. It was established in 1846, as a working sugarcane plantation with enslaved African Americans. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the site employed paid laborers and former convicts, and by c. 1890 it become a cattle ranch.
The Hawkins Ranch was established by James Boyd Hawkins in 1846. [2] It was a sugarcane plantation, with 101 African American slaves by 1860. [2] [3] In December 1863, during the American Civil War of 1861–1865, Confederate States Army General John B. Magruder was inspecting coastal defenses in the area and "stopp[ed] awhile at Hawkins' plantation and other hospitable places." [4] After the war, paid laborers were supplemented by convicts. [3] For example, in 1876, Hawkins employed 37 convicts. [5] In September 1887, there was an uprising of the African Americans near the plantation, as reported by The Galveston Daily News. [6]
By the mid-1890s, the plantation had stopped raising sugarcane and started to be focused on growing corn, cotton, and raising cattle. [7] In the wake of the invention of barbed wire (in the late 1800s), the plantation gradually became more focused on becoming a cattle ranch. [2] Gas wells and trails were built throughout the ranch. [2] Most cattle are a crossbreed of Hereford and Brahman cattle. [2]
In 1919, Hamill and Associates conducted a test to determine whether oil existed on the ranch, but drilling did not continue. [8] Orbit Petroleum operated gas wells on the ranch for several years. [9] Gas wells were shut in by the Texas Railroad Commission as a result of Hurricane Rita in 2005, and they were reopened in 2007. [9]