University of Texas at Austin wordmarkUniversity of Texas at AustinCollege of Liberal Arts wordmarkCollege of Liberal Arts
Texas Beyond History
TBH Home

Credits and Sources

Joan Few
Principal Investigator Joan Few, shown on the front steps of the Lake Jackson Plantation house as she explains the site to reporters.

The Lake Jackson Plantation exhibit was written by Joan Few and TBH Co-Editor Susan Dial and adapted in part from the 1999 Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society reports of the TAS Lake Jackson Field Schools. Johnney Pollan, local arrangements coordinator for both field schools, provided text for the TAS field school section.

Few has been an adjunct professor of anthropology/archeology at the University of Houston at Clear Lake since 1991. With an undergraduate degree in history and Master's in anthropology and archeology, Few believes she has found the perfect blend. "Words were never enough for me," she explains. "I have always felt that history had to be embellished and substantiated by material evidence." A Registered Professional Archeologist, Few has specialized chiefly in sugar and cotton plantation archaeology and is the author of Sugar, Planters, Slaves, and Convicts, detailing her work at the plantation. She is a past president of the TAS.

San Antonio native Johnney Pollan holds a BS Degree in Engineering Science and has worked for the Dow Chemical Company for more than 31 years. His interest in archeology began as a youth when his cousin, famed San Antonio potter Harding Black, would tell stories of the Witte Museum’s digs in the lower Pecos River in the late 1930’s. A member of TAS since 1981, Pollan is a charter member of the Southern Texas Archeological Association and co-founder of the Brazosport Archaeological Society. At present he is State Archeological Steward for Brazoria County.

Numerous images were provided for this exhibit by the Lake Jackson Historical Association, the Brazoria County Historical MuseumMuseum, and the TARL Photo Collections of TAS members including Norman Flaigg, Sue Turner, and Dr. E. Mott Davis.

Johnney Pollan, left, served as local arrangements coordinator (Camp Boss) for both TAS field schools at Lake Jackson Plantation.

The following organizations and institutions helped make the Lake Jackson Plantation archeological research program possible:

    Brazosport Archeological Society
    Lake Jackson Historical Association
    Dow Chemical Company
    City of Lake Jackson
    University of Houston Clear Lake
    Texas Archeological Society
    Houston Archeological Society
    Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Visiting Historic Sugar Mills

Two Texas sugar mill ruins are open to the public; Varner-Hogg State Park is open year round and the Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark Site, owned by the Lake Jackson Historical Association, is open on the first Saturday of each month between 10 a.m. and dusk. Artifacts and records from the Lake Jackson excavations are displayed and curated at the Lake Jackson Historical Association Museum in Lake Jackson, Texas.

Links

http://www.bchm.org/
Brazoria County Historical Museum. Exceptional collection of online archival resources including documents and photographs as well as historical exhibits on such topics as Austin's Colony and the Civil War.

http://www.lakejacksonmuseum.org
Lake Jackson Historical Museum which owns and operates the Lake Jackson Historic Landmark site and curates excavated materials from the site. Visitor information included as well as a virtual tour of the museum.

Handbook of Texas Online
Articles on Lake Jackson and related subjects such as Abner Jackson and the institution of Slavery in Texas.

http://www.txarch.org/
Website of the Texas Archeological Society, one of the oldest and largest groups for avocational and professional archeologists in the nation. Information about archeology in Texas, how to receive training, and how to become a member of the society. Provides contact information for local historical and archeological societies.

Print Sources

Brazosport Archeological Society
1989   Historical Resource Survey of The Lake Jackson Plantation, Survey Report 89-01. BAS Publication, 400 College Drive, Lake Jackson, Texas 77566

Brazoria County, Texas
1878   Deed Q557, Deed of Trust executed by Ward and Deevey to Crow, Baker and Bates, Trustees for use of Wm. Walter Phelps, February 28, 1878

Champomier, P.A.
1858-59   Statement of the Sugar Crop Made in Louisiana in 1858-59

Creighton, J.A.
1975   A Narrative History of Brazoria County. Brazoria County Historical Commission

Few, J., K.E. Fustes, W.S. Gross, C.D. Kneupper, J.T. Pollan, S.D. Pollan, J. Pool, W.L.
McClure, J.L. Smith, J.S. Wayland and D.J. Wayland

1996   Final Report of Research and Excavation at the Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark, Lake Jackson, Texas, 41BO172, Between 1991 and 1996, Under Antiquities Permit 1072, University of Houston Clear Lake, Houston, Texas

Few, Joan
2006   Sugar, Planters, Slaves and Convicts. Few Publications (available through Amazon and other online sources).

1999   Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark (41BO172): Report of the 1994 and 1995 Texas Archeological Society Field Schools and Additional 1996-1998 Excavations. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70.

1999   Texas' Early Sugar Industry: A comparative Study of Four Antebellum Sugar Mills in Brazoria County, Texas. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70.

Gross, S. et.al.
1989   Historical Resource Survey of the Lake Jackson Plantation. Survey of the Brazosport Archaeological Society, July 24, 1989

Johnson, W.R.
1961   A Short History of The Sugar Industry in Texas. Texas Gulf Coast Historical Association Publications 5 (1).

McClure, W.L.
1999   The Vertebrates from Lake Jackson State Archeological Landmark. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70.

Olcott, Henry S.
1857   SORGHO AND IMPHEE: The Chinese and African Sugar Canes, A.J. Moore, Agricultural Book Publisher, New York, N.Y.

Pollan, Sandra Driskill
1999   The China Cabinet at the Jackson Plantation: Analysis from the Lake Jackson
State Archeological Landmark Site (41BO172). Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 70

Strobel, Abner J.
1926   The Old Plantations and Their Owners of Brazoria County, Texas. Union National Bank, Houston, Texas, Reprinted in 1980 under, "Historical Scrapbook of West Columbia, Texas."

Teacher's Resources

Few, Joan and Charles Locke

Raisin' Cane. A two-part videotape and Teacher's Supplement; Volume One: Plantation Life in Texas; Volume Two: In Pursuit of the Past. Available from Garfield Productions, 4226 Caldwell Ln., Del Valle, TX, 78617.