Buckeye
Markham, Matagorda County, Texas
Marker Inscription
During the early 1900s land promoters established hundreds of towns across Texas by luring residents of the northern United States with advertisements of Texas’ warm climate and fertile soil. The founders of the town of Buckeye sought to establish a town upon existing grazing land and planned irrigated farm land and railroad service that would increase the town and surrounding area’s population. Dr. Ambrose A. Plotner and John W. Stoddard purchased the land known as “Kuykendall pasture” from Wylie and Susan Kuykendall and R. G. and Maggie Kuykendall in 1902. The two men named the planned town after their native Ohio, known as the Buckeye state. A headquarters was established at the site and Charles F. Chillson was hired as the general manager. The plotner-stoddard irrigation canal was platted in 1902 and was designed to irrigate approximately thirty thousand acres. The St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway was granted right-of-way through Buckeye in 1903. A community school was organized in 1905 with Plotner and Stoddard donating the one-room school building, and a post office was established in 1907. The Buckeye irrigation farm was subdivided for resale in 1909 into tracts from ten to three hundred acres. The town was finally platted in 1912, and streets were given names such as Citrus, Fig, Orange and Peach. Plotner and Stoddard dissolved their partnership in 1916 and divided the remaining unsold property. Despite the hope of an oil discovery at Buckeye during the 1930s, the town gradually declined, and the Plotner and Stoddard heirs sold most of their property during the mid-1940s. The post office closed in 1971, and only a few houses remain today at the Buckeye site.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the early 1900s land promoters lured northern families to Texas with promises of warm weather and fertile soil, and Buckeye — named for the founders' native Ohio — was one such planned town. Dr. Ambrose Plotner and John Stoddard bought the old Kuykendall pasture in 1902, laid out a vast irrigation canal, secured a railroad right-of-way, and platted streets named for citrus and figs. Despite a school, a post office, and hopes of an oil strike in the 1930s, the town gradually declined, its post office closing in 1971 with only a few houses left today.
Why it matters
Buckeye illustrates the speculative land-and-irrigation boom that promoters used to settle the Texas coastal plains — and how many of those engineered towns quietly withered when the promises fell short.
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Related people
- · Ambrose A. Plotner
- · John W. Stoddard
Themes & tags
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