Ghostly Traces: The Hidden Stories
of Varner-Hogg Plantation
Antony Cherian
Ima Hogg as a young woman, Public Domain
West Columbia, Texas, is a sleepy town of 4,000, just off the Brazos River south of Houston. Within the gated community of Columbia Lakes, resort homes and a world-class golf course have lured weekenders and retirees, along with executives from the many petroleum and chemical companies that operate along Texas' Gulf Coast.
On a crisp spring morning, as the mist clears from the links, you can see the Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site, a decorative arts museum established by Ima Hogg. Looming in the background is a plantation house with a troubled past. Today, a golf course covers what were once the sugar cane fields of the plantation.
When the mist clears, the Varner-Hogg plantation house, like the golf course, presents an idyllic façade. In the process of making the plantation’s big house a decorative arts museum, much of its prior history was erased from the structure as well as the landscape. The big house was given a facelift, to, in Ima Hogg’s words, “make it more comfortable and practical.”
But with a little imagination, you can easily convince yourself that mysteries lurks in this landscape that is reminiscent of Southern Gothic novels or eerie British moors.
The ghosts here are real. They are not lost souls roaming the landscape but rather traces of the past that cast a shadow over the present.
The neatly trimmed contours of the course were once planted high with cane stalks, refuge not for golfers but for rats and snakes. Enslaved men and women cleared the fields to plant cane. Later, freedmen--or more likely imprisoned laborers---cleared them again to plant cotton. And in the twentieth century, workers cleared them yet again to drill oilfields.
On a crisp spring morning, as the mist clears from the links, you can see the Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site, a decorative arts museum established by Ima Hogg. Looming in the background is a plantation house with a troubled past. Today, a golf course covers what were once the sugar cane fields of the plantation.
When the mist clears, the Varner-Hogg plantation house, like the golf course, presents an idyllic façade. In the process of making the plantation’s big house a decorative arts museum, much of its prior history was erased from the structure as well as the landscape. The big house was given a facelift, to, in Ima Hogg’s words, “make it more comfortable and practical.”
But with a little imagination, you can easily convince yourself that mysteries lurks in this landscape that is reminiscent of Southern Gothic novels or eerie British moors.
The ghosts here are real. They are not lost souls roaming the landscape but rather traces of the past that cast a shadow over the present.
The neatly trimmed contours of the course were once planted high with cane stalks, refuge not for golfers but for rats and snakes. Enslaved men and women cleared the fields to plant cane. Later, freedmen--or more likely imprisoned laborers---cleared them again to plant cotton. And in the twentieth century, workers cleared them yet again to drill oilfields.
Foundation of a slave cabin at Varner-Hogg, excavated 1982.
In making Varner-Hogg “comfortable and practical,” its owners have attempted to erase its difficult past.
The walls, built of bricks hand-made by slaves, were plastered over. Plastering over the walls was easier than confronting the past, visible in the fingerprints that slaves left on those bricks.
The objects that illustrated the harsh labor conditions here—the cabins of slaves and later sharecroppers, the sugar mill and its machinery—were destroyed, sold off, or allowed to fall into ruin.
The path that ran from the plantation house, past the “slave cabins" and to the fields has long since disappeared. Now a barbed wire fence cuts between the big house and the fields.
Tranquil pecan orchards, oak groves, and lawns have replaced a landscape once ravaged by decades of raising cane and cotton, of grazing and drilling.
Like a fugitive, Varner-Hogg Plantation even changed its name to escape its past. Until the state dedicated it as a historic site, the Hoggs referred to the plantation as it “the Varner.”
The walls, built of bricks hand-made by slaves, were plastered over. Plastering over the walls was easier than confronting the past, visible in the fingerprints that slaves left on those bricks.
The objects that illustrated the harsh labor conditions here—the cabins of slaves and later sharecroppers, the sugar mill and its machinery—were destroyed, sold off, or allowed to fall into ruin.
The path that ran from the plantation house, past the “slave cabins" and to the fields has long since disappeared. Now a barbed wire fence cuts between the big house and the fields.
Tranquil pecan orchards, oak groves, and lawns have replaced a landscape once ravaged by decades of raising cane and cotton, of grazing and drilling.
Like a fugitive, Varner-Hogg Plantation even changed its name to escape its past. Until the state dedicated it as a historic site, the Hoggs referred to the plantation as it “the Varner.”
The Varner-Hogg Plantation, Courtesy Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Martin and Elizabeth Varner were “Old Three-hundred” colonists who settled the land in 1824 as part of Stephen F. Austin’s original land grant from Mexico. The Varners stayed for ten years, the minimum required to gain legal title to the land.
However, when the Hoggs bought the plantation and house, it had long been known as “the Patton Place” after Columbus “Kit” Patton who had moved down from Kentucky and bought the land from the Varner family in about 1834.
The Hoggs began referring to the site as “the Varner” about a year after they purchased it. They preferred to emphasize the connection to Martin Varner, a man remembered chiefly for distilling the first rum in the Austin Colony. Although Varner died in a gunfight with a neighbor in East Texas, by the standards of many white Southerners of the Hogg’s time, Varner was more respectable than Kit Patton.
According to the probate court records of his disinherited heirs, Patton “lived in disgraceful intimacy” with “a certain Negro woman slave named Rachel.” Patton’s feelings for Rachel were so strong that in his will, Patton effectively set Rachel free and provided a modest annual allowance for her.
Patton’s and Rachel’s relationship was common knowledge during Patton’s life but it became the stuff of courtroom drama after his death when his siblings and nephew chose to contest his final will.
However, when the Hoggs bought the plantation and house, it had long been known as “the Patton Place” after Columbus “Kit” Patton who had moved down from Kentucky and bought the land from the Varner family in about 1834.
The Hoggs began referring to the site as “the Varner” about a year after they purchased it. They preferred to emphasize the connection to Martin Varner, a man remembered chiefly for distilling the first rum in the Austin Colony. Although Varner died in a gunfight with a neighbor in East Texas, by the standards of many white Southerners of the Hogg’s time, Varner was more respectable than Kit Patton.
According to the probate court records of his disinherited heirs, Patton “lived in disgraceful intimacy” with “a certain Negro woman slave named Rachel.” Patton’s feelings for Rachel were so strong that in his will, Patton effectively set Rachel free and provided a modest annual allowance for her.
Patton’s and Rachel’s relationship was common knowledge during Patton’s life but it became the stuff of courtroom drama after his death when his siblings and nephew chose to contest his final will.
Convict labor picking cotton, Texas. Public Domain.
Court records paint a picture of a fiery, proud woman who exerted great influence in the home. Charles Grimm, Kit Patton’s white overseer, testified that “The Negro woman Rachel occupied the position of a white woman as much as any I ever knew.” Similarly, a neighbor testified “She seemed to be the mistress of the place more than a servant.”
Rachel reportedly even had a horse that she alone used. The executor of the will claimed that she “bought more fine dresses than any lady in the community.” She fought back when Patton or white family members tried to beat her---although she herself freely beat other slaves. In short, Rachel did not “know her place.”
In a twist typical of southern Gothic stories, Patton had disinherited his nephew for beating Rachel. He later cut his brother out of the will for coming to the nephew’s defense.
However, Patton’s siblings and family took their revenge, committing Kit to an insane asylum in South Carolina. There he died of typhoid or dysentery.
Historian Mark Carroll suggests that the family had Kit declared non compos mentis and institutionalized to separate him from Rachel and restore their own inheritance. However some testimony seems to indicate that Kit began behaving erratically at about the same time he started having trouble with his eyes. His symptoms were consistent with a stroke or tumor.
Rachel reportedly even had a horse that she alone used. The executor of the will claimed that she “bought more fine dresses than any lady in the community.” She fought back when Patton or white family members tried to beat her---although she herself freely beat other slaves. In short, Rachel did not “know her place.”
In a twist typical of southern Gothic stories, Patton had disinherited his nephew for beating Rachel. He later cut his brother out of the will for coming to the nephew’s defense.
However, Patton’s siblings and family took their revenge, committing Kit to an insane asylum in South Carolina. There he died of typhoid or dysentery.
Historian Mark Carroll suggests that the family had Kit declared non compos mentis and institutionalized to separate him from Rachel and restore their own inheritance. However some testimony seems to indicate that Kit began behaving erratically at about the same time he started having trouble with his eyes. His symptoms were consistent with a stroke or tumor.
Ex-slave Sarah Ford, Library of Congress.
Sarah Ford, who was born into slavery on the Patton Place, remembered Rachel's dramatic rise and fall. In her eighties Ford told the story in a WPA Ex-Slave Narrative:
"Marster Kit has a African woman from Kentucky for he wife, and dat’s de truth. I ain’t sayin’ non iffen she a real wife or not, ‘cause I don’t know, but I know all de slaves has to call her “Miss Rachel.” She sure was uppity over de slaves but she do try an’ teach us chillen manners.
But iffen a bird fly up in de sky it mus' come down sometime, and Rachel jus' like dat bird, 'cause Marster Kit go crazy and die an’ Marster Charles [Patton] take over de plantation an’ takes Rachel, too, an’ puts her out in de field to work like de rest."
Over the years, discussion at the site about the Patton family, who established the plantation, built the big house, and lived there for longer than any of its other owners, was limited.
Even less attention was paid to Rachel, Sarah Ford, and the many other laborers—predominantly African American—who made this place so profitable for its owners.
But as you walk through the mists that often shroud this place, you may still be able to hear the voices of the enslaved men and women, the sharecroppers, the leased convicts, and the wage workers who labored here so long ago.
Getting there
Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site is located at 1702 N. 13th St in West Columbia, sixty miles south of downtown Houston and 55 miles southwest of Hobby Airport. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Admission to the site grounds is $1 per person and guided house tours are $6 for adults and $4 for children ages 6 to 18.
Local Eats
Scott's Barbecue, not far from Varner-Hogg Plantation, is a local attraction, open for lunch Wednesday through Sunday, with juicy smoked ribs, tender beef brisket, and smoked chicken. If you show up on a Wednesday, be sure to try the chicken fried steak, a batter dipped and fried beef steak served with white cream gravy.
Elmo's Grill, a home-grown version of Dairy Queen, has more convenient hours, open 10:00am to 10:00pm seven days a week and serves tasty burgers and shakes.
Lighter fare and vegetarian options are hard to come by in West Columbia, but Cafe Annice in nearby Lake Jackson offers fresh, carefully prepared dishes in a more urbane setting.
Scott's BBQ
226 East Brazos Ave., West Columbia, TX 77486
Elmo's Grill
454 S 17th St., West Columbia, TX 77486
Cafe Annice
24 Circle Way St., Lake Jackson, TX 77566
Antony Cherian received his PhD. in History from the University of Texas at Austin.
"Marster Kit has a African woman from Kentucky for he wife, and dat’s de truth. I ain’t sayin’ non iffen she a real wife or not, ‘cause I don’t know, but I know all de slaves has to call her “Miss Rachel.” She sure was uppity over de slaves but she do try an’ teach us chillen manners.
But iffen a bird fly up in de sky it mus' come down sometime, and Rachel jus' like dat bird, 'cause Marster Kit go crazy and die an’ Marster Charles [Patton] take over de plantation an’ takes Rachel, too, an’ puts her out in de field to work like de rest."
Over the years, discussion at the site about the Patton family, who established the plantation, built the big house, and lived there for longer than any of its other owners, was limited.
Even less attention was paid to Rachel, Sarah Ford, and the many other laborers—predominantly African American—who made this place so profitable for its owners.
But as you walk through the mists that often shroud this place, you may still be able to hear the voices of the enslaved men and women, the sharecroppers, the leased convicts, and the wage workers who labored here so long ago.
Getting there
Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historic Site is located at 1702 N. 13th St in West Columbia, sixty miles south of downtown Houston and 55 miles southwest of Hobby Airport. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Admission to the site grounds is $1 per person and guided house tours are $6 for adults and $4 for children ages 6 to 18.
Local Eats
Scott's Barbecue, not far from Varner-Hogg Plantation, is a local attraction, open for lunch Wednesday through Sunday, with juicy smoked ribs, tender beef brisket, and smoked chicken. If you show up on a Wednesday, be sure to try the chicken fried steak, a batter dipped and fried beef steak served with white cream gravy.
Elmo's Grill, a home-grown version of Dairy Queen, has more convenient hours, open 10:00am to 10:00pm seven days a week and serves tasty burgers and shakes.
Lighter fare and vegetarian options are hard to come by in West Columbia, but Cafe Annice in nearby Lake Jackson offers fresh, carefully prepared dishes in a more urbane setting.
Scott's BBQ
226 East Brazos Ave., West Columbia, TX 77486
Elmo's Grill
454 S 17th St., West Columbia, TX 77486
Cafe Annice
24 Circle Way St., Lake Jackson, TX 77566
Antony Cherian received his PhD. in History from the University of Texas at Austin.