About Bar X Ranch

Wade H. Bynum sold a 1000 acre cotton plantation out the Samuel Carter League east of the Brazos River in the Bailey’s Prairie area to Robert and David G. Mills in October 1837. From Kentucky, the Mills brothers under the style of R. & D. G. Mills of Galveston, Texas would make this the nucleus for what would finally become a 3280 acre sugar plantation. R. & D. G. Mills built an empire as commission merchants and cotton brokers in Galveston, Texas. During the early years of statehood, Robert Mills operated their business in Galveston while in Brazoria County David G. Mills managed Bynum and Lowwood as sugar plantations building Palo Alto into a cotton plantation. They also owned a half interest in Caney Place, another sugar plantation, with William G. Warren in Matagorda County. While Bynum was just one of several plantations owned by the Mills brothers, based on a large slave labor force, Bynum Plantation produced sugar on a large scale throughout the 1850’s. Although they owned hundreds of slaves, many tens of thousands of acres, and several ships to transport their merchandise before the Civil War, heavy mortgages finally forced the Mills brothers into bankruptcy court after the war. Bynum Plantation was sold to Andrew G. Mills, their nephew in 1872 to cover debts before the bankruptcy was declared. After the death of Andrew G. Mills in March 1894 his widow Lucy Mills signed the property over to J. W. Clapp, a major creditor of the Mills family for many years. After the property changed ownership several times, W. B. Munson bought the property in 1911. The Bynum Plantation remained in the Munson family ownership for many years before it was subdivided into the Bar X Ranch Subdivision in 1978.