More About Sugar Land's Local Community Roots

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Isaac Herbert Kempner and William Thomas Eldridge partnered to form the Imperial Sugar Company. Kempner headed his family's wealthy H. Kempner Trust, which invested in cotton, banking, and insurance. Eldridge owned and operated business enterprises in and around Eagle Lake, including a railroad and company town. He was a shrewd, rugged, self-made man who killed on two occasions, claiming self-defense. He was tried and acquitted on both accounts. 

The aim of the Kempner and Eldridge partnership was to buy the Ellis family's ailing Sartartia Plantation, owning and operating it from 1906 and 1908. They improved the facilities for convict workers, adding a clinic and a commercial pool for bathing.

The refinery and its mill, town, and surrounding 12,500 acres were acquired by partners Isaac H. Kempner and William T. Eldridge in 1908. They began a process of transforming Cunningham's operation into a model company town. 

Railroads were vital to Sugar Land, hauling raw materials in and marketable products out. In 1907, Kempner and Eldridge chartered the narrow-gauge Imperial Valley Railway, which traveled seven miles west of Sugar Land. They also bought and later expanded Cunningham's Sugar Land Railway, which extended southeast to Arcola. They went about transforming what some had call the "Hell Hole of the Brazos"- a small, rundown, isolated industrial center that included a raw sugar mill, refinery, paper and acid plants, a commissary, saloon and brothel, and a pool hall. a neighboring bar and brothel were immediately closed. Cunninham's convict population was transferred to the state. 

In 1908, Kempner and Eldridge acquired the Cunningham property, including its mill and refinery. They transferred the ownership of the Sartaria Plantation to the State of Texas, making it part of the prison system. Eldridge then moved the former Ellis plantation home onto refinery property and began living there to oversee operations. Like Cunningham, he also leased convicts from the state to grow sugar cane and work in the mill and the refinery.  

The course was to set to what would become a five-decade transformation, initiated by the founding of Imperial Sugar, a thriving business and company town.

Kempner and Eldridge built streets, good houses, commercial businesses, churches, exceptional schools, and medical facilities to draw "family-type" workers to their isolated refinery and town. It also included retail establishments, entertainment, and land for churches. Sugar Land flourished as a company town for five decades under the leadership of Kempner and his son Herbert who owned the properties and land, and under the stewardship of their partner Eldridge who managed the company and town. Ike Kemper put much of his profits from the company back into the town, making it attractive for prospective employees. They converted the surrounding cane fields to other crops, using tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and migrant workers to cultivate them.

In Sugar Land, everyone had a job-either at Imperial or Sugarland Industries. The acreage consisted of both Imperial Sugar and Sugarland Industries. What was the difference? Imperial Sugar was involved in the process of refining sugar. Kempner's other company, the Sugar Land Industries owned everything else-the stores, the bank, the farmland, the cattle ranch, the canning company, and the mercantile. Everything was company owned at the time. What you bought-food, clothes, even a car-was paid off through payroll deduction. Health care was virtually free. Imperial also provided education. Imperial put in streets, sewer lines, water, gas, and electric lines, and built a network of levees and canals to control flooding and cool refinery equipment. The electricity and gas system were sold prior to the city's incorporation. Kempner and Eldridge practiced a business model known as welfare capitalism, providing an environment and amenities for workers and their families, neither required by law nor benefiting their industry.

Not only was their experiment capitalistic by nature, but it also took workers' needs into consideration. Testimony of their adherence to this concept was long-average employee tenure and Sugar Land's successful evolution from company town to dynamic incorporated city.

From 1908 until the city incorporated in 1959, Sugar Land was a true company town. The Imperial Sugar Company and its affiliate, Sugarland Industries, continued to own virtually all of the enterprises; mercantile, car dealership, bank, pharmacy, and even a supermarket store. Despite this, it was a successful town, and everyone had a job. Even during the depression, Imperial did not lay off employees. And purchases at the company stores were charged against your Imperial paycheck.

With Sugar Land still a company town, The Sugarland Industries still operated also the cotton gin to the John Deer Green Tractor agency, a western auto store, a home and furniture store, and all the necessities of life. The company had one charge account and ran its own credit agency. There were no credit cards and itemized statements were provided at the end of every month.

The concept of a company town worked well because Sugar Land was remote. In the early days, roads were poor, and Houston seemed to be a great distance. People simply didn't have the time to shop, especially with just about everything right there in Sugar Land. It made sense to have all the necessary commodities in the growing company town.

In the late 1950's, Frank Sharp donated a 300-foot-wide right-of-way through the land he owned and was developing into one of the first suburban communities, Sharpstown. This roadway served as the feeder lanes for what would become U.S. 59, one of the busiest freeways in the U.S. The feeder roads reached to where U.S. 90 intersects U.S. 59 in Sugar Land. Thus, in, 1962, Houston was much closer to Sugar Land. Once Sharpstown Mall opened, residents of Sugar Land had new places to shop.

The Kempner family, owners of Imperial and Sugarland Industries, realized in the mid-1950's that the company town model would be fading quickly. Certainly, the retail businesses they owned would be losing money. Once work began on extending U.S. 59, they also realized that Houston would be annexing from the north, and Richmond from the south. Consequently, the Kempers wholeheartedly supported the incorporation of the City of Sugar Land in 1959. The building of U.S. 59 was greatly sped up when Sugarland Industries donated all the land needed as a right-of-way for the freeway through the city limits of Sugar Land. 

As Houston and surrounding areas grew, more and more stores opened in the city, prompting the company to sell its stores to major retailers. It marked the beginning of a gradual transition from company town to City governance.

And all the enterprises owned by Imperial? Individuals bought the grocery and dry goods stores and operated them for a number of years. the Western Auto closed. Hugh Rouse, who managed the drug store for Sugarland Industries, bought it and operated it for some years, adding a nice eating area and fountain to it. The John Deer Implement store closed because there was less farming. The cotton gin closed after Sugarland Industries sold the farming and grazing land to Gerald Hines for the development of First Colony in 1972. Nalco, (then Visco) incorporated the gin building into its complex. The Farm and Home Center and the MixRite Feed Mill closed soon afterwards.

In the 1940's, Herbert Kempner Jr. took over management of the company store and left a vision and a legacy behind. The heart and soul of Sugar Land suffered an enormous loss when Herbert Kempner died of cancer in 1953. He had mustered enough vitality during his illness to draw up a comprehensive plan shaping the future of the refinery and town. Part of his plan was to transition the town from the Kempner family's beneficence to a self-sustaining incorporating city. Ike saw to it that his late son's wishes for the expansion of the company and continuing town improvements came to fruition.

Before his passing, Herbert Kempner had developed and begun implementing a visionary plan for his company-town's transition into an incorporated city. He built a new retail center with company offices on the second floor. He initiated plans to improve both white and minority schools, build a new hospital, and upgrade sewer systems and to develop new residential subdivisions in both white and minority neighborhoods. Kempner also attracted outside companies to Sugar Land such as Johnston Testers, a Schlumberger company. His father. known as "Mr. I.H.," continued his vision with the help of men like Sugarland Industries' Thomas L. James and Imperial Sugar's William H. Louviere and Robert M. Armstrong.

In 1958, the Imperial Sugar Company decided the upkeep of its company-owned houses was just getting to be too much of a drain on the company's profits. The rents were greatly below what it was costing the company for upkeep and infrastructure development. Imperial's primary focus was refining sugar, not keeping up houses. The houses were already depreciated, so they would be selling the property and taking the capital gains on the land.

The company's brick houses on the Hill, northeast of the refinery, were put on the market, and the company employees were given the option to buy the houses they were living in and most of them did buy their homes, priced from about $4,000 to $6,000 for the house and the lot. The first ones sold were the brick houses on Lakeview Street. Most of the houses had shared driveways. The surveyor, Henry Steincamp, divided the lot down the middle of the driveway. Some lots ended up being 100-feet wide, some 80-feet wide. There was no rhyme or reason, lot size was determined by existing improvements on the lot. Houses along Main and up to 6th Street were largely wood or siding (which was asphalt shingle) and were a bit cheaper. Imperial arranged with the Sugar Land State Bank, now Frost Bank, to provide financing for the employees. The bank agreed to $500 down and mortgages with a five percent rate to be paid off in ten years. Buyers could opt for payroll deduction to make weekly or monthly payments if they liked. A number of people bought their homes outright. There was no platting of the Hill. The property was sold by meets and bounds.

The land that would become Venetian Estates was a low, swampy land. Sugar Land Industries and Belknap Realty dug canals and used the dredged dirt to build up the land height. It was Mrs. Henrietta Kempner's (wife of Imperial owner Isaac Kempner) idea to call it Venetian Estates and to give Italian names to many of the streets. The lots sold slowly at first, at $5,000. These were not cheap lots. Some "spec" homes were built.

The extension of the Southwest Freeway to Sugar Land cleared the way for the growth of residential development during the 1960's. But when the U.S. 59 service roads opened, there was a way to get into Houston without going on South Main. It was also the time when the area around Sharpstown was being developed. The state's highway project extended the freeway through rice fields in Sharpstown to U.S. Highway 90A, a milestone that spurred the development of Sugar Creek and other areas.

Sugar Land's unique development can be attributed to good decisions made by the Kempner family. After the Southwest Freeway service roads and the U.S. Highway 90A overpass had been built, the Kempner's decided they wanted out of the land business to concentrate on the sugar business, so they sold land.

The Imperial Cattle Ranch sold about 1,200 acres to a developer to create what became Sugar Creek in 1968. The area's first master-planned community introduced country club living near Sugar Land. It had the feel of rural estates with upscale amenities that included a Robert Trent Jones golf course.

Sugar Creek was a community that revolved around a golf course and a country club. The golf course was new amenity for Sugar Land, but it also addressed flood concerns that were common in the county.

Prior to the development of Sugar Creek, the Kempner family set the stage for upscale residential communities in Sugar Land with the development of Venetian Estates. They dredged canals in family-owned farmland and swamp to build the neighborhood. The development served several purposes- nice, new waterside homes, the elimination of a swampy area inhabited by alligators and continued flood control protection.

Sugar Creek was developed after Jack Kamin, (the developer of the very successful Nassau Bay) said to Harris Kempner, "If you sell me some land, I will guarantee that the balance of your land will be increased in value."

Sugar Creek was developed, and true to Jack's work, the land's value increased considerably. No one ever thought that half a million-dollar houses would be built around Sugar Land. 

Kamin and a member of the Kempner family reached an agreement for the acreage over coffee in a shop in Clear Lake. Terms were listed on a napkin that was signed, and they sealed the deal with a handshake. The new project was introduced to prospective buyers by Kamin's partner, Don Russell at the Houston Club in downtown during 1969.

Venetian Estates greatly benefited from the extension of the Southwest Freeway, which improved access and sparked renewed interest in the rural neighborhood.

Despite this, Sugar Land was about the only place that had water-front lots. The lots in Venetian Estates began selling quickly then.

Also, during the early 1960's, a new subdivision development called Covington Woods introduced contemporary affordable housing in Sugar Land for the first time.

Based on the success of Covington Woods, Venetian Estates, and Sugar Creek, developers began looking for new opportunities in the Sugar Land area.

Most people of Sugar Land enjoyed the prosperity and leisure's of the 1950's. They went to Cinemascope movies at the Palm Theater, followed high school football sensation Ken Hall on Friday nights, attended Lions Club carnivals, played baseball, and hosted the annual Sugar Festival. 

Even though Sugar Land progressed further than many southern towns, it still followed Jim Crow laws and customs. Minority populations lived in the Quarters (renamed Mayfield Park) and sat in segregated sections of the Palms Theater. Mayfield Park on the north side of the refinery was nearly exclusively Black and Hispanic. African American children had to attend all-African American schools, and eating establishments either refused to serve minority persons or required them to sit in separate dining rooms. The medical clinic had separate entrances and waiting rooms, and The Sugar Land Shopping Center had "colored" and "white" toilet facilities and water fountains. The black children attended M.R. Wood School, while the Hispanic children walked to Lakeview Elementary since they were considered "white." The City put a bridge across from Mayfield Park to Main Street so that the children could get in and out of Mayfield more easily which helped break the segregation in Sugar Land. Integration started running smoothly in the school system. These practices continued until federal law finally enforced change in the 1960's. Minority or not, jobs were there without a lot of unemployment or a lot of unrest, as there might have been in a larger city or other areas.

In Mayfield Park, as the rest of Sugar Land, the homes were owned by the Sugar Company. Black American and Latin American employees lived there. The homes in Mayfield were considered out of code in the early 1950's by the City because they had an outdoor privy and just running cold water in a single faucet back side of the house. Herb Kempner, son of Isaac, was over Imperial and was disturbed at the plight of the Mayfield residents. More than 200 houses were bulldozed, and new brick ones built over the course of a decade in their places; residents lived in temporary housing. Herb Kempner's vision for Sugar Land was much like his father's, a city with no injustice and with opportunity for everyone. The City was able to work with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to start an urban renewal project in the early sixties, and the first FHA home was sold to Mrs. Aline McLemore in 1961. She bought the first FHA insured house in Mayfield Park. The urban renewal project allowed the Sugar Company to get rid of the shacks and pay contractors to build new three-bedroom brick homes with bathrooms, kitchens and amenities. The program was optional but not a single employee failed to take advantage of the offer. 

Loans backed by Imperial Sugar enabled the removal of run downed houses to clear the way for newer homes with indoor plumbing. Because the FHA was involved; the loans were at a very low interest rate. It involved a savings and loan so that the people could receive a loan. The Sugar 

Company was agreeable to payroll deduction for the loans that were paid by the homeowners. On a weekly basis payroll deductions were made to the lender to pay off the note. Within 15 years, all the mortgages were paid. It is believed that there was never a foreclosure in the Mayfield subdivision. The project led to the growth of areas like Mayfield Park. The City put in concrete streets, curbs, gutters, and sidewalks. Sadly, Herb Kempner died in 1953 and did not see the completion of his Mayfield project.

In 1972, the Kempner family sold 7,500 acres to Gerald Hines Interests for the development of First Colony. It was one of the largest sales in Texas history. Development of 10,000 acres began in 1977 by Sugarland Properties Inc. and would follow the next 30 years. The master-planned community offered homebuyers formal landscaping, neighborhoods segmented by price range, extensive greenbelts, a golf course and country club, lakes and boulevards, neighborhood amenities and shopping.

Hines did a marvelous job with financing. He got the Ford Motor Credit Corporation to come in as a partner. After a period of years, Ford decided they were really not in the land business, but in the automobile business. So, Ford sold their interest to Royal Dutch Pension Plan.

The thing that makes Sugar Land so unusual is that one owner sold to one buyer. That buyer could then develop a master planned community. Not that many places around the United States have had that opportunity.

By that time, the City was well organized with a comprehensive plan and building codes. They imposed restrictions on the way Hines developed, put in his utilities and how he sold his bonds. The City had a financial advisor by the name of Ernest Brown, who had a lot of knowledge about municipal utility districts, utility systems, and city oversight. He was a great help to the City and helped prevent a slip-shod development. It all worked out for everyone in a positive way.

During the 1950's looking at the nearby cities of Richmond, Stafford, Missouri City, and the city of Houston's moves to aggressive annexation, I.H. Kempner went on the offensive with annexation plans for his company town. Imperial knew that it was just a matter of time before the successful company town would be no more, so he encouraged the citizens to incorporate before being annexed. As workers returned from WWII looking to own their own homes, Imperial sold its company houses to employees living in them, creating homeowners who could vote to become a "General Law" City. A quorum of voters petitioned for a vote on the matter. Residents quickly moved to incorporate-to avoid annexation by nearby Houston, Stafford, Missouri City, or Richmond. This ramped up the process to incorporate beginning in 1957. Imperial supported incorporation and so, on a rainy and cold December 15, 1959, 480 citizens represented a 75 percent turnout of the 670 registered voters in the City. The 480 voters turned out to elect the City's first mayor and five aldermen (city council). An election was held December 29, 1959. T.E. Harman won outright in a three-person mayoral race as the first mayor of Sugar Land. Five aldermen were elected out of eleven that ran in the City Council ballot. The first City Council meeting was on January 19, 1960. The newly incorporated City spanned four square miles with a population of approximately 2,259 citizens.

  Following incorporation, City Council asked Imperial Sugar for a building to turn into City Hall. The company provided a shoe store on Kempner Street that included one office and an additional room. The Sugar Company donated desks and chairs, and the local lion's club provided additional furniture for the council table. As the city grew and became financially stronger, land was purchased on Brooks Street for the second City Hall.

Following the day of incorporation, Mayor T.E. Harman also began his task of transitioning services previously provided by Imperial Sugar.

Throughout the 1960's, the company began transitioning services to the newly created City government. The City hired its first City employee, City Secretary Hazel McJunkin, and scheduled two Council meetings on the first and third Tuesday of each month, a practice that continues today. 

One of the City's new council's first actions was to approve building codes, plumbing codes and electricity codes. This was followed by the implementation in 1961 of a comprehensive city plan, which allowed for the incorporation of zoning. Sugar Land then hired its first City building official, Albert H. Weth.

The City gradually assumed responsibility for many of the services provided to residents. Lacking the equipment for street repair, Sugar Land paid for materials and contracted with the county to provide labor and equipment.

City growth was slow, but important early decisions laid the groundwork for future success. Bill Little credits the first City Council for its foresight to create a comprehensive plan that paved the way for zoning. The plan was first of many that chartered an orderly, planned systematic development of the City. The document was built on the business plan of the company town's founders, Isaac and Herbert Kempner and W.T. Eldridge. 

Trash service was another challenge. Residents of the company town had been accustomed to trash service five days per week, a service historically provided by the company. A reduction to twice per week was just part of the City's new service level provided to residents. The greater challenge was explaining to citizens that the City's new contractor would not enter homes to remove trash. Hence, the beginning of curbside trash collection.  

City founders also had the foresight to provide park space. Lands donated by Imperial Sugar eventually became Baker Field Park, or just City Park. A pool was added in 1966, hence the beginning of City recreation in Sugar Land. A Lot has changed since then. Sugar Land now maintains 18 neighborhood and community parks totaling more than 770 acres.

The City's first fire chief was Walter "Soapy" Borowski. Volunteer firefighters listened for a town siren that sounded a set number of blasts to indicate which part of town the fire was located.

Another important step during the 1960's was the creation of a City police force. Sugar Land hired Joe Burke to the newly created position of City marshal. J.E. Fendley was later hired as Sugar Land's first police chief. When the City assumed responsibility for the water and sewer system, a third employee was hired.

Officer Ernest Taylor was one of SLPD's first officers. Hired in 1969, he learned police work on the job, advancing from patrol officer to detective to captain of the Fort Bend Major Crimes Task Force, which was created during the early 1970's. Taylor was the group's commander for nine years, during which time the group conducted regional undercover and surveillance operations that resulted in major arrests. Taylor was promoted to police chief in 1992. He retired in 2002.

By 1973, the Sugar Land Police Department had grown to six officers, including Chief J.E. Fendley, Assistant Chief Larry Ross, Detective Ernest Taylor, Officer Bob Tollett, Officer Eber Stewart, and Officer Ken Czarneski.

Those early hires laid the groundwork for Sugar Land's current workforce of 641 employees, who provided comprehensive services for the City's population of 79,573.

Bill Little was elected mayor in 1961, just a few years after the City's incorporation on December 29, 1959. He and his wife, Mary, came from Ohio looking for job opportunities in Sugar Land. He found one with Sugarland Industries. During those days, there weren't many new people in the company town. They were the new kids on the block, but they would have a lasting impact on the City's future.   

The City of Sugar Land was incorporated in 1959 as a "General Law" City and remained such from 1959 until January 17, 1981, at which time a special city election was held for the purpose of establishing a home rule municipal government. Voters approved of the adoption of a home rule charter that provided a "mayor-council government," investing all powers of the City in a Council composed of a mayor and five councilmen.

A special city election was held August 9, 1986, and voters approved a change in the City's form of government from "mayor-council" (strong mayor) to "council-manager" form of government, which provides that the city manager be the chief administrative officer of the city.

Imperial gave the infant city a good start. The Kempners and Eldridge, and their associates had put in streets, sewer lines, levees and the electric, gas, and telephone lines.

Most importantly, the incorporated city had citizens filled with enthusiasm and a spirit of cooperation ingrained during the Imperial years.

Sugar Land's rich history and strong company town foundation helped set its path as a well-planned and one of the fastest growing, vital and diverse cities in Texas. In 2009, the population grew to more than 80,000. Sugar Land is one of the most successful cities anywhere. We owe a real debt of gratitude to Isaac and Herbert Kempner for establishing a well thought out company town that became this wonderful city.