Editing Sugar Land, Texas (section)

===Company town===
[[File:The Sugar Land Refinery.jpg|200px|thumb|Sugar Land's former Imperial Sugar refinery|left]]
In 1906, the Kempner family of [[Galveston, Texas|Galveston]], under the leadership of [[Isaac Herbert Kempner|Isaac H. Kempner]], and in partnership with Logan J. Copenhaver, purchased the {{convert|5300|acre|adj=on}} Ellis Plantation, one of the few plantations in Fort Bend County to survive the Civil War. The Ellis Plantation had originally been part of the Jesse Cartwright league; Will Ellis had operated it after the Civil War by a system of [[tenant farming]], made up mostly of African-American families who were previously enslaved on the land.

In 1908, the partnership acquired the adjoining {{convert|12500|acre|adj=on}} Cunningham Plantation, with its raw-sugar mill and cane-sugar refinery. The partnership changed the name to Imperial Sugar Company; Kempner associated the name "Imperial", which was also the name of a small raw-sugar mill on the Ellis Plantation, with the Imperial Hotel in New York City.

Around the turn of the 20th century, most of the sugarcane crops were destroyed by a harsh winter. As part of the Kempner-Copenhaver agreement, Copenhaver moved to the site to serve as general manager and build the [[Company town|company-owned town]] of Sugar Land.

The trains running through Sugar Land are on the route of the oldest railroad in Texas. They run adjacent to the sugar refinery, west of the town, and through the center of what used to be known as the [[Central Unit|Imperial State Prison Farm]]. It operated with [[convict lease]] labor. Between the end of the Civil War and 1912, more than 3,500 prisoners died in Texas as a result of the racist convict leasing program. Archaeologists have uncovered unmarked graves of African Americans from this period in the region around Sugar Land's prison and sugar factory.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/07/18/bodies-of-95-black-forced-labor-prisoners-from-jim-crow-era-unearthed-in-sugar-land-after-one-mans-quest/|title=Bodies believed to be those of 95 black forced-labor prisoners from Jim Crow era unearthed in Sugar Land after one man's quest|first=Meagan |last=Flynn|newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2018/07/16/295915/uncovered-remains-at-forgotten-sugar-land-grave-site-tell-their-own-texas-history-story/|title=Uncovered Remains At Forgotten Sugar Land Grave Site Tell Their Own Texas History Story|first=Elizabeth|last=Trovall|date=July 16, 2018|website=Houston Public Media}}</ref> Since the early 21st century, this area has been largely redeveloped as the suburban planned community of [[Telfair, Sugar Land|Telfair]].

As a company town from the 1910s until 1959, Sugar Land was virtually self-contained. Imperial Sugar Company provided housing for the workers, encouraged construction of schools, built a hospital to treat workers, and provided businesses to meet the workers' needs. Many of the original houses built by the Imperial Sugar Company remain today in The Hill and Mayfield Park areas of Sugar Land, and have been passed down through generations of family members.

During the 1950s, Imperial Sugar wanted to expand the town by building more houses. It developed a new subdivision, Venetian Estates, which featured waterfront homesites on [[Oyster Creek (Texas)|Oyster Creek]] and on man-made lakes.