Groce Family Plantations

Jared Groce reached the Brazos in January 1822 with about fifty wagons and roughly ninety enslaved people, though the county Handbook says one hundred. By the end of 1822 he had a big house on a hill, and in 1825 one of Texas's first cotton gins. In 1824 he chaired a committee asking Mexico to protect slave property, and in the 1830s he armed a company of enslaved men against raids. A visitor in 1828 called him stingy. The plaque dates his death to 1836; the Handbook, which cites his 1838 will, says 1839.

What the plaque says

Groce Family Plantations Pioneers in this Texas area. Had early cotton gin and ferry. Founder of family was Jared E. Groce (1782-1836), who came to Texas in 1822. His large wagon train brought elaborate plantation equipment. Groce built "Bernardo" and "Groce's Retreat." Heirs built "Pleasant Hill," "Eagle Island" and "Liendo" (the only surviving Groce mansion, 2 mi. NW of here). A contribution of the family to the cause of Texas freedom was providing rations and ferry service to army of Gen. Houston on eve of San Jacinto victory. Descendants have contributed leadership to the state.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Star of the Republic Museum — 18 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 19 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site — 19 mi
  Stephen F. Austin's colonial capital on a Brazos bluff, the town of the Consultation and the first Texas newspapers, burned by its own garrison in the Runaway Scrape of 1836.
• Navasota — 22 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.

More markers nearby

• Liendo — 1.1 mi
• Gen. George and Libbie Custer Campsite — 1.8 mi
• Jacob E. Freeman — 2.1 mi
• Prairie View A&M University — 2.3 mi