Hawkins Ranch


The Hawkins Ranch is a historic ranch in Matagorda County, Texas, USA. The ranch was established in the 1840s as a cotton and sugarcane plantation, with African slaves. After the American Civil War, slaves were replaced by convicts, and it became a cattle ranch. More recently, oil was discovered and wells drilled.

History

The Hawkins Ranch was established by James Boyd Hawkins in 1846. It was a cotton and sugarcane plantation, with 101 African slaves by 1860. During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, it was used as the headquarters of Confederate States Army General John B. Magruder. After the war, slaves were replaced by convicts. For example, in 1876, Hawkins employed 37 convicts.
In 1887, blacks working on the plantation staged an uprising, prompting Governor Lawrence Sullivan Ross to send the Houston Light Guard to neutralize them.
In the wake of the invention of barbed wire, the plantation was gradually became a cattle ranch. Wells and trails were built throughout the ranch. Most cattle are a crossbreed of Hereford and Brahman cattle.
As early as 1919, Hamill and Associates started drilling for oil on the ranch. It is now drilled by Orbit Petroleum. Oil wells were shut in by the Texas Railroad Commission as a result of Hurricane Rita in 2005, and they were reopened in 2007.