Groce Family Plantations
Hempstead vicinity, Waller County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneers in this Texas area. Had early cotton gin and ferry. Founder of family was Jared E. Groce (1782-1836), who came to Texas in 1822. His large wagon train brought elaborate plantation equipment. Groce built "Bernardo" and "Groce's Retreat." Heirs built "Pleasant Hill," "Eagle Island" and "Liendo" (the only surviving Groce mansion, 2 mi. NW of here). A contribution of the family to the cause of Texas freedom was providing rations and ferry service to army of Gen. Houston on eve of San Jacinto victory. Descendants have contributed leadership to the state.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Jared E. Groce arrived in Texas in 1822 among the earliest Anglo settlers, his wagon train hauling elaborate plantation equipment into a raw frontier. He and his heirs built a string of cotton plantations with grand names — Bernardo, Groce's Retreat, Liendo — along with an early gin and ferry. On the eve of the Battle of San Jacinto the family fed and ferried Sam Houston's army, a direct contribution to Texas independence.
Why it matters
The Groce plantations mark the plantation-and-cotton economy that Anglo colonists transplanted into Mexican Texas, an economy built on enslaved labor that shaped the republic's fight for independence.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Jared E. Groce rolled into Texas in 1822, the land was not yet Texas as we know it. It belonged to a newly independent Mexico, which was eager to populate its thinly settled northern frontier and had begun welcoming colonists from the United States. The rich bottomlands of the Brazos River were among the most prized ground in the region, dark soil that newcomers from the cotton South recognized at once.
Those settlers brought more than wagons and seed. They brought the plantation system of the American South, including slavery, into a country whose government was uneasy about it. That tension between Anglo colonists' cotton economy and Mexican law was one of several pressures building through the 1820s and early 1830s.
By 1836 those pressures had broken into open revolution. The Brazos valley, with its farms, crossings, and supplies, became a key stretch of ground as the Texian army maneuvered in the spring of that year. Plantations like the Groces' were no longer just farms. They were the infrastructure of a new country trying to be born.
People & events
Jared E. Groce did not arrive the way most frontier families did. His large wagon train carried elaborate plantation equipment across a raw country, a sign that he meant to build something on a grand scale from the very start. He is counted among the earliest Anglo colonists in the region, and the enslaved people he brought with him did much of the labor that turned the Brazos bottoms into cotton land.
On that land he built "Bernardo" and "Groce's Retreat." His family added an early cotton gin and a ferry, two things a frontier community badly needed. His heirs kept building: "Pleasant Hill," "Eagle Island," and "Liendo," which today is the only Groce mansion still standing. Liendo later became known as the home of the sculptor Elisabet Ney, giving the house a second chapter in Texas history.
The family's most famous moment came in the spring of 1836. As Gen. Sam Houston's army moved through the area in the weeks before the Battle of San Jacinto, the Groces provided rations and ferry service to get the troops across the Brazos. Soon after, Houston's men won the battle that secured Texas independence. Jared Groce himself died that same year and did not live long in the republic his family had helped supply.
Its place in the American story
The Groce story sits right where two big American stories meet: westward expansion and the spread of cotton slavery. Families like the Groces carried the plantation South beyond the borders of the United States, and when Texas broke from Mexico and later joined the Union, that economy came along too. The annexation of Texas in turn became one of the sharpest arguments of the decades that led to the Civil War.
The plantations also show that revolutions run on supplies as much as on battles. An army needs food and a way to cross rivers, and private landowners along the route often decided how quickly it could move. The Groces' help in 1836 is a reminder that the victory at San Jacinto depended on a whole landscape of farms, ferries, and people, including the enslaved workers whose labor produced those rations.
This is why the site deserves an honest look. The grand plantation names describe real wealth and real influence, and the marker notes that Groce descendants went on to leadership in the state. That wealth was built on forced labor, and remembering both halves is how a place like this tells the full story.
If you visit
The marker stands in the countryside near Hempstead in Waller County, rolling farmland that still hints at the agricultural world the Groces built. Take a moment to picture the Brazos bottoms as they were in the 1820s: dense, fertile, and far from any real town, crossed only by ferries like the one this family ran.
The marker notes that Liendo, the last surviving Groce mansion, lies about two miles northwest. It is a private property, so check ahead before you plan to see more than the view from the road, and always respect the owners' privacy.
This stop fits naturally into a Texas Revolution road trip. The Brazos valley holds several sites tied to the independence story, and following the river gives you a feel for the country Houston's army crossed on its way to San Jacinto. Bring a map, take the back roads, and let the landscape fill in what the words on the marker can only suggest.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Jared E. Groce
- · Sam Houston
Related events
- · Battle of San Jacinto
Themes & tags
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