I found the following excerpt in Jesse A.
Ziegler's book, Wave of the Gulf, published in 1938. I wish I had photos of Cunningham's home, which stood on the north side of Guenther Street adjacent to Oyster Creek. I have the following undated picture (probably taken around 1908) which shows what must have been the 'backyard' of his home. It stood out of view on the left. (Highway-90A crosses the Creek on the right.) There's a large, panoramic picture hanging in the Sugar Land Museum, which shows the area. Unfortunately, trees hide much of the site.
Yes, Ziegler misspelled Sugar Land, but he provides a good summary of early Sugar Land history. Although he published his book in 1938, his account must date from the time Cunningham owned Sugar Land, i.e. before 1908. I believe Ziegler was a regular visitor at Cunningham's plantation.
“Sugarland – Colonel
Cunningham’s Plantation”
This fine plantation and sugar refinery, now owned by Colonel E. H. Cunningham, is a combination of five plantations, namely: Kyle and Terry, Thatcher, Brebard and Borden – twelve thousand five hundred acres, six thousand five hundred of which are in cultivation, cane and corn principally, but also sorghum, alfalfa, and truck gardens. Williams, Brown and Belknap, part of the Alcorn and part of the William Stafford, are the original grants on which this plantation is located. John M. Williams owned the place in 1828, having the league located then. In 1840 S. M. Swinson brought several schooner loads of cane up the Brazos River to plant on his farm, but concluding not to do so, sold the cane to Williams, which he planted on his place, and made sugar with a horse mill, shipping it down the Brazos and finding a market for it at Galveston. Kyle and Terry bought the property in 1853 and put up a sugar house. Kyle died in 1862, and Colonel Frank Terry was killed in the Civil War in 1861. The property was then divided between the Kyle and Terry heirs, and soon after James Freeman bought 1,600 acres from the heirs of Colonel Terry. The entire property then remaining was purchased from the heirs by Colonel Cunningham, who had everything remodeled and added a great amount of machinery, the expenses altogether amounting to about one million and a half dollars. Included in this was a sugar refinery and paper mill, the former being the finest in the south.
Colonel Cunningham is a native of Arkansas, and came to Bexar County, Texas, in 1856, and went into the stock business on Martinas Creek, and was very successful, but the Civil War nearly broke him up. When the clash came between the North and South in 1861, Colonel Cunningham organized and commanded a famous company of western men called “Mustang Greys,” who were incorporated with Hood’s 4th Texas Brigade.
… Besides his plantation of “Sugarland,” Colonel Cunningham has 700 acres leased of the Cartwright place, seven miles below. The Colonel also built a little over fourteen miles of railroad, called the “Sugarland Road,” connecting with the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe at Duke, and the International at Arcola, running down Oyster Creek through all the main sugar lands. At his plantation the Colonel has a store, post office, etc. It is situated in Fort Bend County on the Southern Pacific Railroad, eight miles east of Richmond, and “Sugarland” is one of the stations.
Colonel Cunningham married Miss Narcissa Brahan, daughter of R. W. Brahan of Mississippi. Their children are Edward Brahan, Eva Lock, Susie Dismukes, Thomas Brahan, and Narcissa Haywood, all living, two married. Thomas married in San Antonio, Miss Maxwell, now dead. Edward Brahan married Miss McEachin of Richmond, Texas.
