Bell Prairie

Gillette entered Trinity College in Hartford at about twenty-one but left in 1839 because of ill health. He was teaching in Houston by 1840 and took charge of Union Academy in Washington County in 1841, where he met Lucinda Maxey; they had ten children. In 1846 he taught in the preparatory department of the new Baylor University at Independence, but left after two years, discouraged by the trouble of collecting tuition, on which his salary depended. He then taught and farmed at Fireman's Hill, later Cold Springs, in Polk County.

What the plaque says

Bell Prairie Once located southwest of this site was the home of Henry Falvel Gillette (1816-1896). A native of Connecticut, Gillette came to Texas in 1840 at the urging of his cousin, Ashbel Smith. He became a noted educator in Harris, Washington, and Polk counties. He married Lucinda Maxey (1826-1901) of Washington County in 1842. The Gillette family lived on the plantation of Lucinda's father, William Maxey, in present San Jacinto County from about 1848 until 1859, when Henry bought property on Galveston Bay. He named his plantation home Bell Prairie. The plantation included a two-story brick home, matching carriage house, and slave quarters. A wharf on the property was used for the importation of cattle from England. In addition to operating his plantation, Gillette was superintendent of the Bayland Orphan's Home on nearby Goose Creek and was a founding member and Worthy Master of the Cedar Bayou Masonic Lodge. Following Henry Gillette's death, Bell Prairie remained in the family until the mid-20th century. The plantation home was severely damaged in the 1900 hurricane and burned to the ground after being struck by lightning in the 1915 storm. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site — 9.0 mi
  The 1,200 acres of coastal prairie and marsh where the Texas Revolution ended in eighteen minutes, and the 567-foot shaft of fossil-studded limestone that has stood over them since 1939.
• Space Center Houston — 14 mi
  The visitor center of NASA's Johnson Space Center at Clear Lake, with flown capsules, a shuttle replica riding a 747, and tram tours to Mission Control and a Saturn V.
• Emancipation Park — 25 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 26 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.

More markers nearby

• Ashbel Smith, M. D. — 1.3 mi
• Bayland Orphans Home — 3.2 mi
• Morgan's Point Cemetery — 3.4 mi
• Cedar Bayou United Methodist Church — 3.8 mi