To begin understanding about the land that Sweeny Texas sits on one should first understand about Stephen F Austin’s first colony and the settlers that received land grants. Imla Keep was one of those settlers. Texas State Historical Association is a good place to get a brief history. (Also See Old 300 List) Next you need to get an understanding of how the land grants were mapped. This Portal to Texas History map will help.
The following information is the land history based on our research. Although information herein might differ from earlier Sweeny history it is not the intention of this group to re-write history but to record information obtained from sources much easier to search than in years past. Any mistakes, corrections or questions are very much welcome.
County records searched were all hand written up until the 1910’s or so making them very difficult to read and understand. This does leave room for error, however we do believe this information is mostly accurate.
The intention of this was to record only the early days of Sweeny land from John Sweeny up thru the early days of Sweeny town site.
Sources Searched
Brazoria County Land Record searches date back to the 1830’s
Brazoria County Commissioner Court Minutes date back to mid 1860’s
Brazoria County Historical Museum (online)
Sweeny Historical Society box located at the Chamber of Commerce.
Facebook pictures and comments
Sweeny history as written by others
Examples of differences someone might notice.
John Sweeny did not buy all the Keep League, only ¼ of it
Will Sweeny did not buy the town site from the McGrews and sell to R/R. The R/R bought 100’ wide right of ways thru out the county.
The Eades building was not what most of us recall as the Kimmey/Boswell building but was the building next door.
There are two ways to view the information. One is to scroll down and view the slide show. Mouse over show to highlight the starts show, pause, manual advance and previous buttons. Mouse over will also pause the show. Second click the following link to open a PDF in a new window.
You can also visit the picture page to view the images used in this package.
In addition some of the researched documents or excerpts of can be made available upon request.
Land History Slide Show