Ellerslie Plantation

The records show what slavery built for John McNeel and how fast the war undid it. In 1852 his crop came to 408 hogsheads of sugar, which put him among the ten biggest sugar planters in the county. By 1860 he held 136 enslaved people and reported personal property of more than 216,000 dollars. The war ended slavery, and the 1870 census recorded no property of value for him. He was living in Brazoria in 1874 and died in 1876. He is buried at McNeel Cemetery near Jones Creek.

What the plaque says

Ellerslie Plantation John Greenville McNeel came to Texas in 1822 with his parents and brothers. Each of the men received land grants from the Mexican government as members of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colony. Located near this site was the Ellerslie Plantation, home of John Greenville McNeel and his family. One of the largest sugar plantations in the area, it consisted of a large home, sugar mill, hospital, overseer's house, and slave quarters. Large entrance gates to the property were topped by carved figures of playing card suits-- heart, spade, club, and diamond. The two-story plantation home was built of slave-made bricks. The 21-room structure featured front and rear galleries supported by brick columns. The sugar mill, also made of brick, was an immense structure. Hand-made brick was also used to build the hospital and overseer's house, as well as a number of two-room slave cabins. Following McNeel's death in 1876, the plantation was acquired by a niece, Elizabeth Huntington, and her family. The large home burned in the 1890s, and the family moved into the former hospital. After it was destroyed in the 1900 storm they relocated to the overseer's house. It was destroyed in a 1983 fire. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 8.7 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge — 13 mi
  Coastal prairie, salt marsh and bays between Freeport and Christmas Bay, where an auto tour along Big Slough passes wintering geese, ducks and wading birds in the tens of thousands.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 15 mi
  A Brazos sugar plantation built by enslaved people for the Patton family, later leased convict labor and Hogg family oil, now told through Rachel Patton and Sarah Ford.

More markers nearby

• Old Oakland Plantation — steps away
• Major Reuben R. Brown — 2.0 mi
• William Joel Bryan — 2.0 mi
• Major James Peckham Caldwell — 2.0 mi