Site of Thomas Plantation and Steamboat Landing
Walker County, Walker County, Texas
Marker Inscription
John Richard Thomas (1820-63) of Alabama came to Texas in 1854. Developing a 1060-acre plantation, he built wharves here on the Trinity for shipping his cotton, corn, molasses, and other goods. Thomas' Landing was a regular port of call, giving riverboats considerable business. The Civil War (1861-65) and Thomas' death brought adversity to his people. After 1872, when a railroad was built into Walker County, river shipping ceased. The landing, the plantation "big house" and other buildings once stood near the site now retaining the cemetery.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
John Richard Thomas left Alabama for Texas in 1854 and carved a 1,060-acre plantation along the Trinity River, raising cotton, corn, and molasses. He built wharves here so steamboats could carry his crops to market, and Thomas' Landing became a busy port of call. The Civil War and Thomas's death in 1863 broke the enterprise, and when the railroad reached Walker County in 1872 the riverboats fell silent; today only the cemetery marks the spot.
Why it matters
The landing captures how the antebellum cotton economy, the labor of enslaved people, and river transportation shaped East Texas—and how the coming of the railroad rewrote the map of American commerce.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John Richard Thomas
Related events
- · Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Thomas Cemetery
Walker County, TX
This burial ground marks the site of the Thomas Plantation and its steamboat landing on the river, settled by Alabama native John R. Thomas in 1854. Thomas served in the Confederate army, was captured at the 1863 Battle of Arkansas Post, and died a month later as a prisoner at Camp Chase, Ohio; his mother and two brothers, one also a Confederate veteran, lie here as well. By 1883 a nephew had sold the land and moved on, leaving the cemetery as the family's last mark on the place.
Newport
Walker County, TX
Newport was founded in 1846 by Joseph Werner, a German emigrant who staked his hopes on the traffic of the Trinity River. Like many antebellum Texas river towns, its fortunes rose and fell with the water: when steamboat navigation on the Trinity declined, the town was left behind and abandoned.
Broyles Chapel Missionary Baptist Church
Riverside, TX
After the Civil War, freed people around Riverside gathered to build a church of their own, and mine contractor James Broyles donated a site that took his name. Broyles Chapel Missionary Baptist Church opened its doors in 1895 under Reverend Nemon as the first African-American congregation in Riverside. It endures as a living reminder of the determination that carried a community from bondage into self-governed worship.
Town of Riverside
Riverside, TX
Riverside sprang up in 1872 as the Houston & Great Northern Railroad pushed through Walker County, where landowners gave earth, timber, and rock to win shipping facilities. The post office moved in from riverside Newport, whose wharves sat idle when the Trinity ran low—a telling shift from river to rail. The town grew to include churches, a school, a two-story hotel, a cotton gin, and other businesses, and in the 1920s gained Fuller's earth refining plants.