Grimes County, Texas: History
In the historic period, French and Spanish explorers encountered the Bidai Indians, who were mentioned in Spanish records from 1691. Like other tribes, they suffered high fatalities from new infectious diseases caught from the Spanish and joined with the remnants of other Native American people later in the historic period.
The area had very little settlement by Europeans or creole Spanish during the century of Spanish colonial rule, but after Mexico gained its independence, it invited settlers from the United States to come to eastern Texas. They were allowed to practice their own religion, as long as they swore loyalty to the Mexican government.
A few historic buildings in Anderson, such as the Fanthorp Inn, date from this period, as well as some from the Republic of Texas and the early statehood years. So, the town and nearby area have been designated the Anderson Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Anglo-American migration to what became Grimes County began in the 1820s, when it was part of Mexico. Early settlers were primarily from the South, especially Alabama, and many brought enslaved African Americans with them to work the land. The first cotton gin in Texas was built by Jared E. Groce, who arrived with 90 slaves and developed a cotton plantation near today's Hempstead, Texas.
Texas achieved its independence in 1836, and settlers arrived in greater numbers from the United States. The fertile lowlands were initially used for cotton plantations, especially in the late antebellum period.
Grimes County was organized in 1846, one year after the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States by treaty. From 1850 to the Civil War, the White population steadily increased, since the newcomers continued to bring slaves, the African American population increased even faster. Planters continued to grow cotton and corn as commodity crops. By 1860, 4,852 White inhabitants were in the county, plus 5,468 slaves, who made up 53% of the population. The White population had doubled in the preceding decade, while the slave population had tripled. Grimes had a total of 505 slaveholding families in 1860, with 77 owning 20 slaves or more, that number considered the minimum for major planters. It was one of 17 counties in the state where slaveholders held, on average, more than 10 slaves each.
In such conditions, Whites were anxious after the emancipation of slaves, and also struggled with adapting to a free labor market. White violence rose after the war, and the Ku Klux Klan established a local chapter in 1868 to assert dominance. Federal troops were stationed in the area and the Freedman's Bureau had an office in the county. They were not successful in protecting freedmen, but the bureau established schools in the area.
Determined to crush Populist efforts and alliances with Republicans that resulted in victories in 1896 and 1898, White Democrats formed what became the White Man's Union, a secret, oath-bound organization that violently took over elections in 1900, after killing several Black Populist leaders. It selected all county officials until 1958.
White violence continued after Reconstruction and into the early 20th century, when Whites committed 9 lynchings of Blacks in the county, part of racial terrorism to suppress the freedmen. …