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The Hawkins Ranch, also known as Hawkins Plantation,[1] is a historic site and currently a cattle ranch, located in Matagorda County, Texas. It was established in 1846, as a working forced-labor farm raising sugarcane using enslaved African Americans. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the site employed paid laborers and former convicts, and by c. 1890 it become a cattle ranch.
| Hawkins Ranch | |
|---|---|
  Hawkins Ranch Location of Hawkins Ranch in Texas | |
| Location | Matagorda, Texas, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 28.8331°N 95.7226°W |
| Founded | 1846 |
| Built for | James Boyd Hawkins |
The Hawkins Ranch was established by James Boyd Hawkins in 1846.[2] It was a sugarcane plantation, with 101 African American slaves by 1860.[2][3] In December 1863, during the American Civil War of 1861–1865, Confederate States Army General John B. Magruder was inspecting coastal defenses in the area and "stopp[ed] awhile at Hawkins' plantation and other hospitable places."[4] After the war, paid laborers were supplemented by convicts.[3] For example, in 1876, Hawkins employed 37 convicts.[5] In September 1887, there was an uprising of the African Americans near the plantation, as reported by The Galveston Daily News.[6]
By the mid-1890s, the plantation had stopped raising sugarcane and started to be focused on growing corn, cotton, and raising cattle.[7] In the wake of the invention of barbed wire (in the late 1800s), the plantation gradually became more focused on becoming a cattle ranch.[2] Gas wells and trails were built throughout the ranch.[2] Most cattle are a crossbreed of Hereford and Brahman cattle.[2]
In 1919, Hamill and Associates conducted a test to determine whether oil existed on the ranch, but drilling did not continue.[8] Orbit Petroleum operated gas wells on the ranch for several years.[9] Gas wells were shut in by the Texas Railroad Commission as a result of Hurricane Rita in 2005, and they were reopened in 2007.[9]
- Furse, Margaret Lewis (2014). The Hawkins Ranch in Texas: From Plantation Times to the Present. College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-62349-110-9.
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