More Images of Old Sugar Land

Click the image below to view images of old Sugar Land.

 

Audience at announcement of Kempner Scholarship for M. R. Wood High School graduates in 1957.

More People of old Sugar Land

Click the image to view an album of images of people of old Sugar Land. They come from photos Tommy Laird found among his recently deceased mother's collection of memorabilia. There is also a photo of her father Jamie Farrell Wood posted on Facebook. (Thanks, Tommy and Jamie.) Click the image to view the album.

 

Undated photo of J. T. Farrell (SLHS '46).

John Pirtle's Oral History

John Pirtle was born in 1931 and graduated from Sugar Land High School in 1949. His family lived on "Rat Row" (old Imperial Blvd.), which is now covered by the expanded Nalco plant. Time has made sweeping changes to the town John grew up in, but his memories are still vivid and cherished. Read his interview to get a taste of Sugar Land back then.

Click the image below to read John Pirtle's account of his life in Sugar Land.
 

More People of Old Sugar Land

More People of Old Sugar Land. Click the image to view the album.
 

Gilbert Uresti (DHS '62)

Morales Family Donations to SLHF

In 2014, the Morales family, long-time residents of Sugar Land, donated two historic jerseys to the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation. A ceremony highlighting the donation occurred at a Turn Back The Clock Night at Constellation Field before the start of a Skeeters game.

The jerseys were worn by George Morales, Sr. who played for the Imperials, a Hispanic team sponsored by the Imperial Sugar Company for many years. These jerseys date to the mid-1950s. You can see examples in the two photos below.

Sugar Land Imperials, mid-1950s.

 Manager Joaquin Mora wearing the same uniform.

In early August, the Morales family made another visit to the SLHF to donate a jersey from another team sponsored by Imperial. This one is an Imperial Pirates jersey. Here's an old team photo from the 1970s, showing the jersey.

Imperial Pirates in the 1970s.

   

The next photos show the Morales family displaying the Imperials and Pirates jerseys during their recent visit. The SLHF is very pleased to have these jerseys, which commemorate the tradition of Hispanic baseball in old Sugar Land.

 

Joe Morales with Imperials jersey and George Morales, Jr. with Pirates jersey.

The Morales family, long-time Sugar Landers and generous donors to the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation.

The visit included a surprise. Notice the black-and-white photo of the young boys in the background.  Here's a clearer view of it.

Four young SL baseball fans in the mid-1950s. Clockwise from lower left: George Morales, Jr., Julian Astorga, Fred Mora, and Mike Mora.
  

George Morales, Jr. saw it as we gathered in the museum and said, "That's me!"

George Morales, Jr. then and now.
      

The old photo was part of Sugar Land's 2016 FotoFest exhibit. When we put it together, we liked the photo and decided to use it, but had no idea who the boys were. There was no annotation on the back to give us a clue.

George said, "I heard all over town that people had seen my picture, but I never saw it. I'm glad to see it now!" 

The photo was taken for an article that appeared in The Imperial Crown, the monthly bulletin for employees, but it wasn't used. George supplied the identities for us. He's kneeling on the left. Behind him is Julian Astorga. Standing on the right is Fred Mora. Kneeling on the right is Mike Mora.

One last item to mention. We learned recently of an Arcadia book on Hispanic baseball.  It's Mexican American Baseball in Houston and Southeast Texas. There's a chapter devoted to Sugar Land, which is very good. I enjoyed it.

Old Imperial Brochures

While researching items for a future exhibit, I found several brochures Imperial Sugar published for different audiences through its corporate history. They span several decades and reflect changes in the company and, implicitly, in the town. I'll post a couple of early ones now and several more in the future.

The first is a short pamphlet on how sugar is made. M. R. Wood was a real renaissance man and eminently qualified to talk authoritatively about sugar technology. (Wood was the chief engineer and chemist at Imperial in its very early days.) Click the image below to view the brochure.
 

Cover of M. R. Wood brochure on Sugar Refining, c. 1920

 

The next brochure was printed in 1925. Note that the author is C. B. Gillespie, who was managing editor of The Houston Chronicle at the time. (My brother found this interesting tidbit about him, which says he was a newspaperman, who worked for W. T. Eldridge in Sugar Land for a few years before returning to the newspaper business and becoming a senior figure at The Houston Chronicle. I guess he did some free-lance work for his old employer and friend.)

Take a quick look at the images because they give an distinct impression of Sugar Land in the mid 1920s, but the business reason behind the brochure is interesting, too. 

The biggest sugar refiner in the US in those days was American Sugar Company, which produced Domino Sugar. The New York-based behemoth was trying to poach Imperial's market in Texas.  Eldridge was defending his company's territory from what appear to be under-handed practices.  American was selling inferior sugar as 'pure cane' sugar -- at a much lower price than Imperial. They seemed intent on driving Imperial out of business - or that's what Eldridge thought. 

Imperial (Eldridge) filed an anti-trust suit against American Sugar and won after a court battle that lasted several years. Eldridge was a real bull dog.

 

C. B. Gillespie's brochure on Texas Pure Cane Sugar, 1925

The Imperial Quartet

I thought I'd posted a short item about the Imperial Quartet before, but it doesn't come up when I do a search on this blog. Regardless, I came across an article recently in the August 1985 issue of The Imperial Crown. It recounts the history of this vocal group with Imperial's marketing campaigns from the mid 1940s to the mid '50s. 

Click the image below to access the article.
 

The Imperial Quartet with piano accompanist, Marion Snider.

Imperial Refinery State Marker

On April 22, 1982 the Imperial Sugar Company dedicated a state historical marker at the Imperial Refinery. (The marker is now stored at the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation.) I found an article in the May 1982 issue of The Imperial Crown covering the dedication ceremony and a summary of the Kempner family's involvement with the company. 

Click the image to view the article.

 

  Imperial Refinery State Marker Dedication, March 1982

 
There are four other state historical markers within Sugar Land's city limits: the Sugar Land Auditorium, Sugar Land (community/town), Main Building on the Texas prison system's Central Unit, and Stafford's Plantation. There is also a Historic Texas Cemetery marker within its precincts: the Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery.

More Images of Very Old Sugar Land

I've collected some old photos of the Cunningham/Imperial refinery from its very early years. Be sure to look at the captions because I've tried to explain what the photos show. Click on the image below to view the album. Click the 'i' in the upper right of the frame to display the captions.
 

 

The Cunningham refinery (later the Imperial refinery) in 1894.

  

Milton R. Wood

I received a request recently about information on Milton R. Wood. I've posted quite a few things about him, so I thought I'd collect them here. He was a fascinating person, sort of a renaissance man, who was influential in early Sugar Land history.

Click this link to view a brief profile my brother Bruce wrote on Wood. It focuses on his involvement in the design of Sugar Land's school on Lakeview Drive, where Lakeview Elementary is now located.

This next link accesses a post quoting from Bob Armstrong's book, which also includes brief info about Wood's role as Imperial's chief engineer and chemist in the company's very early days. Note the embedded link to a short history of M. R. Wood School by Mrs. Jean Sampson Johnson. The school in Mayfield Park was named after him. It served Sugar Land's African-American students before integration in 1965. Nowadays, the school serves FBISD special needs students.

Here is a photo of Mr. Wood taken in 1932, when construction began on the Sugar Land School gym, which still stands today. (You can see houses on the north side of Lakeview Drive in the background.) Note the two men in white suits. The one on the right is M. R. Wood. The other (wearing sun glasses) is W. T. Eldridge, Sr., co-owner of Imperial Sugar and Sugarland Industries. He died later that year. The man identified as Albrecht is Mr. A. H. Weth, Imperial Sugar's chief engineer at the time and WWI German fighter ace. (I think.) The man in white shirt and dark pants, standing in front of the women, is Gus Ulrich, general manager of Sugarland Industries.

M. R. Wood died in 1940 (I think, I'll have to check the exact date) in the Rio Grande Valley while visiting relatives. I've no doubts we'll learn more about Mr. Wood in the future.

More Images of Old Sugar Land

I have posted the following image before, but I enjoy studying it because it shows the 'Flats' in 1955. This is the neighborhood where my family lived, and this is the way I Sugar Land appears in my earliest memories.

 

This next photo shows houses on the west side of Brooks St. just after completion in the early 1920s. If you compare it to the preceding photo, you'll see that trees and shrubbery between the sidewalk and the street have grown considerably in the intervening 30 years.

 

The next two photos show a cafe near the northern boundary of the refinery in the early 1960s. I've seen references that call it Mamie Bell's or Mattie Pipe's Restaurant. You can see the Melt House tower in the background. These photos were taken because the building would be razed for northward expansion of the refinery.

 

We have this photo of Mayfield Park from the 1920s. It shows the same general area where the restaurant was located. It could be either of the two buildings I have noted.

Imperial Crown, June 1985

A couple of months ago, I read a blog that referred to Sandy Kempner's death in Vietnam in 1966. (He was the son of Harris & Ruth Kempner and grandson of I. H. Kempner, Sr.) The blog included a link to his letters home, which were fascinating for a variety of reasons.

I remembered an article about Lt. Kempner in the June 1985 issue of The Imperial Crown and thought it was well worth posting here. 

Click the image below to view the Crown and article.

News & Updates

I was swamped with other duties over the last two months, so items have piled up. I'll eventually get to them, but for now I want to mention just a couple of items. First, Mark Voss (DHS '71) died suddenly last week. Click here to view an obituary. I had no idea he had worked in Afghanistan. I have recent photos of Mark in the More People of Old Sugar Land posting immediately below.

Mark Voss.

My classmate (DHS '68) and good friend, Sam McJunkin, lost his wife Hilda suddenly last month. Click here to read an obituary. Some of you will remember Sam's father was a druggist at the Sugar Land (Rouse's) drug store. Sam's mother Hazel was the City of Sugar Land's first Secretary. Sam's sister Olive is a Dulles alum (Class of '63).

My sincerest condolences go to the Voss and McJunkin families. 

On a brighter note, I want to wish Shirley Laird a very belated, but happy birthday. The big day was November 15th. I don't want to make a mistake, so I'll say she's either 93, 94, or 95-years old.  But, who's counting?  Happy birthday!

I will have more on this later, but I wanted to congratulate the City of Sugar Land and Pat Pollicoff, Director of Communications, on the new state historical marker at the Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery in Telfair. I participated in the dedication ceremony and thought it was well done.

Photos of the Imperial Sugar Refinery

I'm not sure of the date for these photographs, which come from the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation's collection. Maybe someone can make a better guess, but mine is sometime in the early 1970s. I thought they have artistic merit although there are imperfections in a couple of them. Click the image below to see the album.

 

The SLHF has closed its temporary location and will reopen this summer in its permanent location. The SLHF museum will be located just behind the silos at Imperial Market. The Fort Bend's Children's Discovery Center occupies the 1st floor of the building. The SLHF museum and the City of Sugar Land's Visitor's Center will occupy its second floor.

The SLHF sells images of historic photos and documents in its collection. If you are interested, review their Web site. If you want an image you don't see in their store (maybe one you've seen on this blog), call and ask if they can provide what you want.  Their number is 281-494-0261.

A Survey of the Imperial Mill's Former Location

My colleague on the Fort Bend County Historical Commission, Bruce Grethen, did this work a few months ago. I saved it thinking I would collect additional supplemental information, but I haven't had a chance to do that. It's such a good example of the work he does for our Cemetery and Historic Preservation Committees, that I didn't want to delay any longer.

First a little background on the Imperial Mill. It was a sugar mill built in 1883 by Ambrose Littleberry Ellis and Edward H. Cunningham. At that time, Ellis owned the Sartartia Plantation, roughly the area covered by the old Central Units (former prison farm), New Territories, Telfair, and the land south of I-69 where the new Smart Financial Center is under construction. Cunningham owned Sugar Land and the land surrounding it, including what became the Imperial Sugar refinery. 

They formed a partnership and built the Imperial Mill behind Nalco's present location. More precisely, it was located on the south bank of Oyster Creek across from Constellation Park.  It burned to the ground in late 1913.

It's a little-known site, but important to the growth of Imperial Sugar - even though it had a brief operating life. We'd like to do an archeological survey sometime in the future if it's possible. What you'll see is the preliminary work Bruce has done.

First I want to show the only photo we now have of the mill.  (I've posted it before.) As you can see it was surprisingly large.
  

A 1909 westward view of the Imperial Mill in the background.

 
Note the split in the dual tracks. It will help locate the exact position of the camera in later images.

The first step in Bruce's analysis is a 1953 aerial photo of the vicinity. He's overlayed it with the old Sugar Land RR, which ran west of Sugar Land. You can see Central Unit 1 near the middle of the photo. The general layout of the mill is colored red in the middle of the right half of the image.
 

   
Next you see he has added a 1912 survey of the area, which was useful because it gave him precise survey coordinates.

The next image shows a magnification the mill's location on the 1912 survey map.
 

 

This image shows the magnified area with georeferenced detail from a Sanborn insurance map.
 

 

Next we see the georeferenced detail projected on a 1953 aerial photo. Notice the cotton gin, depicted on the Sanborn map, is included.
 

Bruce also overlayed the detail on a 1968 aerial photo. You can see that Highway 6 (2-lanes) has been constructed.
 

 

The last image shows the 1912 georeferenced detail on a 2012 aerial. What a difference 100 years makes.

 

 

Now you can see that the camera in the 1909 photo, near the split in the rails, was located on what is now Sugar Land Municipal Airport property. (The cotton gin must have been constructed between 1909 and 1912 since it doesn't appear in the photo but does appear in the Sanborn map.)

I was surprised that the camera was that far west.  I had guessed it was on the east side of Highway 6. 

More Images of Very Old Sugar Land

The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation's photo archive contains an album of very old photos, which appear to date from 1908 to 1910. There are no annotations, but the first of these photos is very similar to one that appeared in The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer Gazette in February 1908. Click here to view the article.
  

East side of Imperial Refinery around 1908.

Approximate view of 1908 photo.

View of old Sealy Mattress Factory at Main & Hwy. 90A around 1915.

View of scene shown above as it appears today.

View of the Imperial Inn on the east bank of Oyster Creek at Hwy. 90A around 1908.


View of scene shown above as it appears today.

View of Salvage Building at Main St. and Hwy. 90A around 1908

View of scene shown above as it appears today.

More People of Old Sugar Land

My brother Bruce and I had an opportunity to attend a Smith family reunion for the first time last weekend.  We had a great time and enjoyed a chance to meet some distant relatives.

The extended Smith family includes the Jenkins, Rozelle, and McCord families -- quite a few people in old Sugar Land. The matriarchs of those families (Minnie Jenkins, Monnye Rozelle, and Hattie McCord) were Smith sisters. They had more than one brother, but one (Walter) is where the Kelly family enters the picture. Our grandfather's sister Letha Mae Kelly married Walter. Mae and my grandfather (Charles or Chuck) were orphaned at a very young age and were estranged, so Bruce and I weren't really aware of our connection to the Smith family for many years.

Click on the image below to view a few photos from the reunion.  (Mae Kelly Smith was grandmother to the Stowells and Irvans, so that's why we're grouped together in one of the photos.) 

We're looking forward to the next one.
 

Betty Ann Williams, Claudia Rozelle Thornhill, & Ray Babineaux at the Smith family reunion on September 10, 2016.  (They are all DHS Class of '71.)

Imperial Sugar Company Cookbooks

I was looking at videos on the Web site for the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, recently. Click here to access its main page. I watched the television ad for Imperial's My First Cookbook.  There's no hint of the date, but I think it may have run in 1963. (They ran multiple campaigns for MFC over the years.) Click the image below to view the 1-minute ad.

As you can see, Imperial's ad agency, TracyLocke of Dallas created the ad and managed the cookbook campaigns, which were a real winner for Imperial. (Richard Brown was Imperial's account exec.)

While reviewing the Heritage Foundation's photo archive, I found these which were taken in 1963. With some effort I could identify the women because I'm certain these photos appeared in The Imperial Crown. I included the second photo even though the quality isn't great because I liked their pose.  This photo was taken in the mail room in Imperial's General Office on the 2nd floor of the shopping center.

My First Cookbooks ready for mailing c. 1963.

My First Cookbooks ready for mailing c. 1963.

I have a lot of sympathy for those two women because I know exactly what they were doing.  I'm not certain of the exact dates, but my mother handled Imperial's cookbook requests from about 1958 to 1962. 

A few would dribble in during slack times, but when a campaign was running she'd be inundated with letters and postcards. During the peak period of a campaign, we could easily process the number of boxes you see in those photos in just one or two days. I don't know how long a campaign would run, but I'm guessing maybe three weeks to a month, and it would run in media all over Texas and neighboring states. Naturally, the flow of requests peaked a couple of weeks before the end, so it wasn't peak volume the whole time.  

Still, Mother got help, as you can see from these photos taken at our house on Oyster Creek Dr. in May of 1961. I can't identify the cookbooks in those photos, but I think it was the 'modern version' of Aunt Cora's Cookbook.

My brother Bruce & I in the den, sacking cookbooks (i.e. putting them in the addressed envelopes).  We didn't have to seal the envelopes; just fold the flap so they wouldn't fall out.

  

Me with our dog Herman.

My grandmother, my great aunt, my father, and my mother at the kitchen table addressing envelopes for the cookbooks.

Those were good times.