Durazno Plantation
Jones Creek, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Originally a part of Stephen F. Austin's 1828 Mexican land grant, Durazno (Spanish for "peach") plantation was willed by Austin to his sister, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, upon his death in December 1836. The property was deeded in 1847 to Emily's son, William Joel Bryan, who developed it into a cotton and sugar plantation. The land remained in the family until 1928, when it was purchased by Robert E. L. Stringfellow. Among the structures on the plantation were a main house, plantation office, log carriage house, barns and other outbuildings, and a number of slave cabins. (1991)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Carved from Stephen F. Austin's 1828 Mexican land grant, Durazno—Spanish for "peach"—passed on Austin's death in 1836 to his sister Emily Austin Bryan Perry and then to her son William Joel Bryan, who built it into a cotton and sugar plantation. Its grounds held a main house, offices, barns, and a number of slave cabins, and it stayed in the family until 1928. The plantation's wealth, like so much of the antebellum South, rested on the labor of the enslaved.
Why it matters
Durazno ties the founding of Anglo Texas under Austin directly to the plantation slavery economy, a sobering reminder that the labor of enslaved people underpinned the region's early prosperity.
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Related people
- · Stephen F. Austin
- · Emily Austin Bryan Perry
- · William Joel Bryan
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ellerslie Plantation
Jones Creek, TX
John Greenville McNeel came to Texas in 1822 as part of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred," and near this site rose Ellerslie, one of the region's largest sugar plantations. Its 21-room brick mansion, immense sugar mill, hospital, and slave cabins were built with bricks made by enslaved people, whose forced labor powered the whole enterprise. After McNeel's 1876 death the property passed to relatives, and fire, storm, and time erased the buildings one by one, the last lost in 1983.
Stringfellow Ranch
Freeport, TX
Robert Edward Lee Stringfellow started on a Brazoria County cattle ranch at fourteen and soon had a herd of his own, opening a Velasco meat market in 1890 that fed the crews building jetties at the mouth of the Brazos. His holdings grew to 20,000 acres and he became an early investor in the new town of Freeport. After a 1932 hurricane injured him, his wife Nannie ran the ranch and the family's Freeport interests for decades more.
William Joel Bryan
Jones Creek, TX
Grandson of Moses Austin, whose colonizing dream reshaped Texas, William Joel Bryan came to the country with his family in 1831 and served in the Texas army from 1835 to 1838 during the struggle for independence. A prosperous planter, he was instrumental in building a deepwater port at the mouth of the Brazos and lived at 'Durazno,' a plantation given to him by his uncle Stephen F. Austin. The city of Bryan, Texas, bears his name.
James Franklin Perry
Jones Creek, TX
A Pennsylvania-born merchant who made his fortune in Missouri's frontier trade, James Franklin Perry married Emily Austin and, urged on by her brother Stephen F. Austin, moved his family to Texas in 1831. He built mercantile and farming interests and settled at Peach Point Plantation on the Brazos River. As an active supporter of the Republic of Texas and executor of Stephen F. Austin's estate, his careful stewardship of Austin's maps, land papers, and reports preserved records now central to the Texas archives.