Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado, First Railroad in Texas

The line's first terminus took its name from William Stafford, who set up a cane mill and a horse-powered cotton gin here in 1830, reportedly the first gin in Austin's colony. Santa Anna's army halted at the plantation on April 15, 1836, ate its corn, sheep and hogs, and burned the buildings on his order. Stafford rebuilt and lived here until he died in 1840. Francis R. Lubbock spoke at the 1853 barbecue. Trains ran twice a week at first and daily by 1855; in December Richmond replaced Stafford's Point as the end of the line.

What the plaque says

Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado, First Railroad in Texas Planned 1840 to benefit the Republic of Texas by moving rich sugar and cotton crops from plantation areas. Chartered 1841 by 5th Congress of the Republic, in name of Harrisburg Railroad & Trading Company. H. R. & T. C. did not succeed in building a railroad. Its holdings were transferred in 1847 to Gen. Sidney Sherman, a hero of the Battle of San Jacinto, who was backed by eastern capital and leading texans -- W. J. Hutchins, gen. Hugh McLeod, Wm. Marsh Rice (benefactor of Rice University), B. A. Shepherd, James H. Stevens, and John Grant Tod (a former Texas naval officer). B. F. Terry (destined to lead Terry's Texas Rangers in the Civil War) and W. J. Kyle graded the roadbed. The first locomotive, "General Sherman," arrived 1852. In August 1853 the tracks extended 20 miles from Harrisburg to Stafford's Point, early Texas center of trade and social life. On Sept. 1, with fanfare, a special train brought a load of honored guests to join planters here for a barbecue-jubilee. Regular schedules were soon in operation. Stafford's Point, end of the line for two years, did much business. Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado in 1860 reached Alleyton -- a distance of 80 miles from Harrisburg. Incise in base: Early Travel, Transportation and Communication Series erected by the Moody Foundation. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 12 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• The Menil Collection — 13 mi
  John and Dominique de Menil's free museum in Montrose: a grey-sided Renzo Piano building among bungalows, holding antiquities, Surrealism and art of Oceania under natural light.
• Rothko Chapel — 13 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 14 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.

More markers nearby

• Missouri City — 0.9 mi
• Stafford's Point — 1.8 mi
• Sugar Land First United Methodist Church — 4.0 mi
• St. John Missionary Baptist Church — 4.3 mi