Chenango is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Brazoria County Brazoria County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 372,031. The county seat is Angleton. Brazoria County is included in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan stat ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. It is a part of the

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the Office of Management and Budget, United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, is the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical ...

metropolitan area.

History

The older town of

Chenango, New York Chenango is a town in Broome County, New York, United States. The population was 10,983 at the 2020 census. The town is northeast of Binghamton. History The area was first settled around 1787, and the Town of Chenango was established i ...

, is the namesake for this community. It was centered on Chenango Plantation, a 1,300-acre plantation carved out of the William Harris Survey during the 19th century. S. Richardson and Joshua Abbott added about 3,000 acres to the plantation. In 1835 (circa) Benjamin Fort Smith bought a portion of the 3,000 acres, along with Monroe Edwards and Christopher Dart, who converted the cotton production of the plantation to

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

. Monroe Edwards and Christopher Dart also used the plantation for slave smuggling to

from

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. It was known as "Parker's Point" in the 1840s when James Love and Albert T. Burnley became partners in the plantation. An officer of the Eighth Texas Cavalry

Terry's Texas Rangers The 8th Texas Cavalry Regiment (1861–1865), popularly known as Terry's Texas Rangers, was a light cavalry regiment of Texas volunteers for the Confederate States Army assembled by Colonel Benjamin Franklin Terry in August 1861. Although lesser ...

, Captain Sharpe, owned the plantation later. A post office was opened in Chenango in 1869 and closed in 1871, reopened in 1877, and closed after 1930. There were 40 residents in 1884, which became a station on the railroad. Its population went down by 10 residents but had two general stores in operation. It also had a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

in 1914. It had 100 residents and four businesses in 1929. Two businesses closed and lost half of its population a decade later. It had 20 registered voters that next year. There was only one business in 1947. After 1950, though some oil production began and Chenango Plantation raised cattle and grew feed, the census no longer listed it.

Geography

Chenango is located in Brazoria County at the intersection of State Highway 521 and the International & Great Northern Railroad, seven miles north of Angleton.

Education

In 1906, Chenango had a white school with two teachers and twenty pupils. It also had a black school with 180 pupils and five teachers. By 1947, the white children attended school in the Angleton Independent School District while the black children continued to attend school in Chenango. Today, the community continues to be served by the Angleton ISD. Children in the area attend Rancho Isabella Elementary School, Angleton Junior High School, and

Angleton High School Angleton High School is a public high school located just outside the city of Angleton, Texas, United States in unincorporated Brazoria County. It is classified as a 5A school by the University Interscholastic League (UIL). It is a part of th ...

in Angleton.

Notable person

* Clarence Sasser,

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

recipient

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Brazoria County, Texas Populated places established in 1869 Unincorporated communities in Texas 1869 establishments in Texas