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Wharton, Texas
Wharton is a city in and the county seat of Wharton County, Texas, United States. This city is 60 mi (97 km) southwest of Houston. Its population was 8,832 at the 2010 census and 8,627 at the 2020 census. Wharton is located on the Colorado River of Texas. U.S. Highway 59 passes west of it.
The area now known as Wharton was part of the Caney Run mail route established in 1838 by the Republic of Texas. The community was named after two leaders in the Anglo-American struggle for Texas independence, brothers John and William Wharton. What developed as a plantation community along the Colorado River was first settled in 1846 by some of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists. A post office was established the next year.
The first lieutenant governor of Texas, Albert Horton, was an early settler. Land for the courthouse square was donated by William Kincheloe and surveyed by Virgil Stewart and William J. E. Heard. Early settlers came from across the South: Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi.
European Jewish immigrants, arriving as early as the 1850s from Germany, established additional businesses and began the Congregation Shearith Israel, the only synagogue in a three-county area. Other settlers in the community included Swiss, German, Mexican, and Czech immigrants and, after the Civil War and emancipation, descendants of plantation slaves.
The area was first developed for agriculture, and planters used enslaved African Americans for labor before the Civil War. Early crops included potatoes, cotton, corn, rice, and sugarcane, and commercial enterprises included cattle, molasses, and sugar. At different times, the community had a cottonseed oil mill, a sugarcane factory, gristmills, cotton gins, a milk-processing plant and dairy, an ice plant, and numerous other industries. Oil and sulfur production in the outlying areas contributes to the town's economy. The population of Wharton was approximately 200 in the early 1880s.
In 1881, the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway was the first railroad to reach Wharton. More than a decade later, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe was constructed to the town in 1899. These two railroads carried new settlers and stimulated businesses, increasing the population to 1,689 in 1900 and 2,346 in 1920. In 1888, the first opera house opened.
When Wharton was incorporated in 1902, most of the structures were of wood construction. A major fire on December 30 of that year destroyed a number of frame business buildings. Afterward, businessmen and the city government were convinced to use brick construction with fire walls for all buildings within the city limits and to construct a water system with fire hydrants.
A free library was established in 1902 by the New Century Club and adopted by the city in 1904. In 1935, the majority of the library inventory was given to the Wharton Public School. The first public park was dedicated in 1913, and the Wharton Chamber of Commerce organized in 1919.
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Wharton, Texas
Wharton is a city in and the county seat of Wharton County, Texas, United States. This city is 60 mi (97 km) southwest of Houston. Its population was 8,832 at the 2010 census and 8,627 at the 2020 census. Wharton is located on the Colorado River of Texas. U.S. Highway 59 passes west of it.
The area now known as Wharton was part of the Caney Run mail route established in 1838 by the Republic of Texas. The community was named after two leaders in the Anglo-American struggle for Texas independence, brothers John and William Wharton. What developed as a plantation community along the Colorado River was first settled in 1846 by some of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists. A post office was established the next year.
The first lieutenant governor of Texas, Albert Horton, was an early settler. Land for the courthouse square was donated by William Kincheloe and surveyed by Virgil Stewart and William J. E. Heard. Early settlers came from across the South: Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, and Mississippi.
European Jewish immigrants, arriving as early as the 1850s from Germany, established additional businesses and began the Congregation Shearith Israel, the only synagogue in a three-county area. Other settlers in the community included Swiss, German, Mexican, and Czech immigrants and, after the Civil War and emancipation, descendants of plantation slaves.
The area was first developed for agriculture, and planters used enslaved African Americans for labor before the Civil War. Early crops included potatoes, cotton, corn, rice, and sugarcane, and commercial enterprises included cattle, molasses, and sugar. At different times, the community had a cottonseed oil mill, a sugarcane factory, gristmills, cotton gins, a milk-processing plant and dairy, an ice plant, and numerous other industries. Oil and sulfur production in the outlying areas contributes to the town's economy. The population of Wharton was approximately 200 in the early 1880s.
In 1881, the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway was the first railroad to reach Wharton. More than a decade later, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe was constructed to the town in 1899. These two railroads carried new settlers and stimulated businesses, increasing the population to 1,689 in 1900 and 2,346 in 1920. In 1888, the first opera house opened.
When Wharton was incorporated in 1902, most of the structures were of wood construction. A major fire on December 30 of that year destroyed a number of frame business buildings. Afterward, businessmen and the city government were convinced to use brick construction with fire walls for all buildings within the city limits and to construct a water system with fire hydrants.
A free library was established in 1902 by the New Century Club and adopted by the city in 1904. In 1935, the majority of the library inventory was given to the Wharton Public School. The first public park was dedicated in 1913, and the Wharton Chamber of Commerce organized in 1919.