Kendleton

The New York, Texas and Mexican Railway laid its track between Rosenberg and Victoria through here in 1882, and the post office opened in 1884 with Benjamin F. Williams as postmaster. By 1896 the town had three general stores and Methodist and Baptist churches serving some 2,000 people in the surrounding countryside. In 1903 its schools taught twelve White students in two schools and 202 Black students in three. The population fell to thirty-six in 1933 but recovered, and after voters incorporated Kendleton in 1973 it passed 600.

What the plaque says

Kendleton The site on which Kendleton now stands was originally a Mexican land grant to settler Elizabeth Powell, whose house was an early-day stage stop. During the Texas Revolution, in 1836, Santa Anna's Mexican Army camped near here. Later the settlements of Oak Hill and Humbolt existed briefly. Kendleton began during Civil War reconstruction when Wm. E. Kendall sold land, for as little as 50 cents an acre, to assist freed Negroes in starting their own farms. The rural village was named in his honor when the railroad came through, 1884. (1969)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Brazos Bend State Park — 24 mi
  Oak and pecan bottomland, lakes and alligators on the Brazos River 45 miles from downtown Houston, with the museum's George Observatory in the woods.
• Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site — 29 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

• Terry v. Adams — 0.3 mi
• Powell Point School — 2.5 mi
• Beasley — 5.9 mi
• Snake Creek Cemetery and Church — 7.8 mi