Wharton County

Wharton County was created in 1846 from planter country. In 1850, 1,242 of its 1,752 residents were enslaved; in 1858, 2,181 of 2,861. After emancipation Black residents outnumbered White residents, reaching five to one by 1890, and served as commissioners and clerk, and Bird B. Davis attended the 1875 convention. In 1889 White leaders organized the White Man's Union Association to limit Black political participation; the Handbook of Texas links the conflict to the murder of a sheriff candidate, whom it does not name. The association lasted into the 1950s as the Wharton County Party.

What the plaque says

Wharton County Wharton County, created April 3, 1846, from Matagorda and Jackson counties, Organized same year. Named for William H. Wharton, 1806-1839, Texas minister to the United States 1836-1837, and his brother John A. Wharton 1809-1839. Adjutant at San Jacinto; member of Congress of the Republic of Texas 1837-1839. Wharton the county seat.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge — 26 mi
  Ten thousand acres of native coastal prairie northeast of Eagle Lake, kept for a critically endangered grouse, many of whose birds are hatched in captivity and released here.
• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 35 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.

More markers nearby

• Judge George E. Quinan — steps away
• City of Wharton — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Wharton — 0.4 mi
• St. Paul Lutheran Church — 0.4 mi