Glen Flora
Glen Flora, Wharton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Located on the east bank of the Colorado River northwest of Wharton, Glen Flora was first settled on one of two land grants awarded to Robert H. Kuykendall, Sr., member of Stephen F. Austin’s old three hundred. Around 1890, C.H. Waterhouse moved to Wharton County and purchased large tracts of land on the west bank of the river. Waterhouse brought in German families from his home state of Pennsylvania, established a large sugar mill, pumping plant and cotton gin. The sugar mill, originally the Waterhouse Rice and Sugar Company, later became the Wharton County Irrigation Company. With construction of the Cane Belt Railroad from Sealy to Wharton, the townsite of Glen Flora was established in 1898 on the east bank of the Colorado River across from Waterhouse holdings, a prime location to access rail lines. The name Glen Flora was suggested by English merchant William Hood, owner of Glen Flora’s largest mercantile store, built in 1900. A post office was established in 1900. In 1902, the Glen Flora Town Company formed with Waterhouse as president; it reorganized in 1906 with G.C. Gifford as president. In 1903, the Cane Belt Railroad sold to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad who leased to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe in 1905. Rail service ended in 1991 and the rails were removed. With its close proximity to transportation and farmland, Glen Flora became a fast-growing community with a hotel, bank, lumber yard, movie theater, telephone company, two cotton gins and more. Beginning with the 1913 flood and then the potato and cane blight, residents began to move to urban areas. In the 1980s, a large commercial fruit orchard was established that restored the area’s historic ties to agriculture. (2016)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Glen Flora took root on the east bank of the Colorado River in land that traced back to Robert H. Kuykendall, one of Stephen F. Austin's original "Old Three Hundred" colonists. Around 1890 C.H. Waterhouse brought Pennsylvania German families to the west bank and built a sugar mill, cotton gin, and pumping plant, and when the Cane Belt Railroad reached the area in 1898 a townsite sprang up beside the tracks. Hotels, a bank, cotton gins, and a movie theater followed, until the 1913 flood and crop blights sent families toward the cities. A commercial fruit orchard in the 1980s revived the town's old agricultural bond.
Why it matters
Glen Flora captures the classic arc of a Texas railroad-and-cotton town—boom on the rails, retreat after flood and blight—that shaped the settlement pattern of the state's coastal plain.
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Related people
- · Robert H. Kuykendall, Sr.
- · C.H. Waterhouse
- · William Hood
Related events
- · Cane Belt Railroad construction
- · 1913 flood
Themes & tags
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