First Generation

	1.	William Jefferson KYLE  was born on 11 Nov 1803 in , Hawkins ,  Tennessee. He died
on 5 Jan 1864 in Sandy Point, Brazoria, Texas. He was buried in Sandy Point Cemetery,
Fort Bend, Texas. 



25 July 1835...

William J. Kyle deeds to John Daly 300 acres for 3,000

1836 Tax list for Giles Co
Kyle, William J 100 acres   8 slaves 1 white poll

26 Feb 1839..William J Kyle is in Brazoria County Texas and appoints Thomas B. Daly of Giles County 
Tennessee as lawful agent to sell lots in Elkton....

Records from the Texas General Land Office.
Certificate #954 Certificate Date 9/20/1838 issued to W. J. 
Kyle issued by Harrisburg County Board of Land Comissioners Immigration Date Between March 2, 
1836 & October 1, 1837 Amount granted 1280 acres (married man)

Certificate #817 Certificate Date 
April 27, 1847 issued to William J. Kyle issued by Harris County Board of Land Commissioners 
Immigration Date Previous to Oct. 1, 1837
Amount granted 1280 acres Deed has this in Harris County 
and is dated April 7, 1847

Field Notes Survey date Nov. 20, 1847 by virtue of Certificate #817 acres 
surveyed 640 in current county of Robertson abstract # 206 Patent issued to William J. Kyle, patent date 
April 19, 1849 Patent #510 patent volume #2

Field Notes Survey Date Nov. 20, 1847 by virtue of 
certificate #817 acres surveyed 640 in current county of Robertson abstract #207 patent issued to 
William J. Kyle patent date April 19, 1849 patent #511

Certificate #4322 granted to Wm. J. Kyle - 
assignee of Jno. L. Cross for service from November 24, 1836 to May 24, 1837. certificate date Sept. 20, 
1838 issued by the Secretary of War acres granted 640
Field notes survey date Nov. 11, 1846 by virtue 
of certificate #4322 acres 640 in current county of Montgomery abstract # 153 Patent issued to Wm. J. 
Kyle patent date May 31, 1850 Patent #563 patent Vol. #4

Texas Poll Tax Lists for 1846
William. J. Kyle 
in Grimes County
William. J. Kyle in Brazoria County

1850 Census (26th day of October)
Brazoria 
County, Texas
W. J. Kyle 48 Farmer $3000 Tennessee
William R. 22 " "

1860 census (12 day of July)

Fort Bend County Texas
Wm. J. Kyle 20 Farmer $68,000 $105,780 Tennessee
Listed with a family 
name of Lang 

1860 census (7th day July)
Brazoria County Texas
Wm. J. Kyle 55 Planter 112,500 65,
780 Tennessee
R. J. Ransom 24 Overseer
R. H. Cuseton 20 "
Harris County, Brazoria & Fort Bend 
Counties are neighbors.



KYLE, WILLIAM JEFFERSON (1803-1864). William Jefferson Kyle, a prominent planter in Brazoria and 
Fort Bend counties and one of the largest slaveholders in Texas, was born on November 11 or 
November 20, 1803, in Hawkins County, Tennessee. Around 1831 he had a son, William Rufus Kyle. 
William J. Kyle and Benjamin F. Terryqv purchased Nathaniel F. Williams'sqv Oakland Plantation at 
Sugar Land in 1853 and continued the raw sugar mill and grew sugarcane and other crops. By 1860 Kyle, 
in partnership with Terry, owned 105 bondsmen in Fort Bend County. That same year he also appeared 
on the census for Brazoria County, where he had real property valued at $112,500 and personal property 
valued at $65,750. In Brazoria County he and Terry had seventy-five slaves and a plantation with 600 

improved acres that produced 3,000 bushels of corn, 50 bales of cotton, and 200 hogsheads of sugar. 
Kyle died in January 1864 and was buried at Sandy Point, Brazoria County. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-
1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989). Ralph A. Wooster, "Notes on Texas' 
Largest Slaveholders, 1860," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 65 (July 1961). 

SANDY POINT CEMETERY, Sandy Point, Brazoria County, Texas Submitted by: Melodey Mozeley 
Hauch, Mail to: [email protected] Sandy Point Cemetery is located on private property on the 
west side of FM 521 approximately one mile southwest of Sandy Point, Texas. A Texas State Historical 
marker stands beside FM 521 near the cemetery which is in Curtis J. Mowery's cow pasture several 
hundred yards from the road. The cemetery is the resting place for Francis Bingham and John W. 
Bradley, two of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists. Four Confederate soldiers were buried 
at Sandy Point: brothers Aurelius J. Terry and Clinton L. Terry, J. Glassell Smith and Harrison 
Tankersley. A. J. Terry was also a veteran of the Mexican War. William Jefferson Kyle (1803-1864) and 
Thomas Jefferson Coffee (1805-1858), prominent local businessmen, were also laid to rest at Sandy 
Point. The Brazoria County Historical Museum's Cemetery Committee has been restoring the cemetery 
since 1998. Sandy Point Cemetery was granted Historic Cemetery Designation by the Texas Historical 
Commission in 2003, and a marker celebrating this status was dedicated on May 22, 2004. The 
restoration continues in 2004 with plans to lift heavier stones back into place. There are currently eighty- 
eight known burials in Sandy Point Cemetery. In many cases, the graves were not marked, and 
information and locations were provided by family members. The earliest existing tombstone is dated 
1852, and the latest burial took place in 1996. The following graves are divided by family and individual 
plots, beginning with the restored brick mausoleum. 1. The Mausoleum WILLIAM JEFFERSON KYLE "
To the memory of William Jefferson Kyle, Born in Hawkins Co. Tenn. Nov. 11th A.D. 1803, Died at 
Oakland Plantation Fort Bend Co., Tex., January 5th A.D. 1864. He was a devoted Husband, an 
indulgent Father, an affectionate Brother and a firm and generous Friend. All his duties of life were most 
rigidly performed. He was the noblest work of God. An honest man." WILLIAM RUFUS KYLE Born 
December 19, 1829, Died March 14, 1859 "Sacred to the Memory of My Husband, William R....Deceased.
....4th, 1859." Inscription is now mostly illegible. 

SUGAR LAND, TEXAS. Sugar Land is on Oyster Creek and U.S. Highway 90A, east of the Brazos River 
and seven miles northeast of Richmond in northeastern Fort Bend County. The area was originally 
granted to Samuel M. Williamsqv in 1828 for his service as secretary to Stephen F. Austin.qv Nathaniel F. 
Williamsqv purchased the land from his brother in 1838, and there he and a third brother, Matthew R. 
Williams, operated Oakland Plantation, which grew cotton, corn, and sugarcane. The Williams brothers 
established their raw-sugar mill in 1843. In 1853 Oakland Plantation was purchased by Benjamin F. 
Terryqv and William J. Kyle,qv who were instrumental in extending the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and 
Colorado Railway through the property. A post office was established in Sugar Land in 1858. After the 
deaths of Terry in 1861 and Kyle in 1864 the plantation began to languish. The post office was closed in 
1886. E. H. Cunningham of San Antonio accumulated more than 12,000 acres of the property over time 
and invested more than $1 million in a sugar refinery, a new raw-sugar mill, a paper mill, and the fourteen
-mile Sugar Land Railroad in the 1890s. Sugar Land was one of the rail stations. In 1890 a second post 
office opened. At that time much of the labor force was leased from the nearby state prison farms. The 
inmates worked in the wet sugarcane fields, many falling victim to the periodic epidemics of fevers. The 
brutal working conditions caused bitter convicts to call Sugar Land the "Hell hole on the Brazos."
In 1892 the town had one physician and a population of 500. From 1906 to 1908 Isaac H. Kempner of 
Galveston and William T. Eldridgeqv of Eagle Lake acquired the Ellis and Cunningham plantations and 
the Cunningham Sugar Company, modernized the facilities, and made the community a company town 
for the Imperial Sugar Company,qv the Sugarland Industries, and Sugar Land Railroad (Missouri Pacific). 
By 1914 the population had dropped to 200, but the number of businesses had increased to include a 
paper manufacturer and a bank. In 1919 the interests were managed by Sugarland Industries, which 

operated the farm and ranch and mercantile interests. In 1913 the sugar company built 8� miles of levee, 
along with twenty miles of drainage ditches, to keep the Brazos River from flooding Sugar Land. 
Between 1917 and 1928 dredging of the many shallow pools, lakes, creeks, and Oyster Creek reclaimed 
acreage to provide necessary drainage and more farmland. The last sugarcane crop in Fort Bend County 
was harvested in 1928. Plant disease and the high federal protective tax on cane sugar ended local cane 
farming, and thereafter raw sugar was imported for the refinery. In 1925 the population was listed at 1,
000; four years later that figure had expanded to 2,500. With the Great Depressionqv the town lost 
residents, and in 1936 population was registered at 1,500, where it remained through the 1940s. In 1946 
the Kempner family became sole owners of the town. By 1956 some 2,285 people called Sugar Land 
home. The town was incorporated in 1959, a year after Imperial Sugar and Sugarland Properties, 
Incorporated, also owned by the Kempner family, began selling the businesses, homes, and land for 
development. T. E. Harmon was the first mayor. By 1964 the population had increased to 3,100. In 1970 
the town listed 3,499 citizens and twenty-eight businesses. In 1980 it had 4,173 residents and ninety-five 
businesses. Spurred by development from nearby Houston, the population had climbed in 1988 to 14,
898, and businesses numbered 423. In 1989 the population was 19,874. In 1990 it was 24,529. The 
population was 63,328 in 2000. See also PRISON SYSTEM.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Margaret S. Henson, Samuel May Williams: Early Texas Entrepreneur (College Station: 
Texas A&M University Press, 1976). Andrew Jackson Sowell, History of Fort Bend County (Houston: 
Coyle, 1904; rpt, Richmond, Texas: Fort Bend County Historical Museum, 1974). Clarence Wharton, 
Wharton's History of Fort Bend County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1939).


William married Mary Ann R "Lucy" DALY  daughter of William DALY and Emarine "Lucy" ABERNATHY on
2 Jul 1827 in , Giles, Tennessee. Mary was born on 2 Jul 1808 in , , Virginia. She died on 24 Jul 1830
in , Giles, Tennessee. 

At the time of her marriage her father William gave her two slaves ANDREW and NANCY..horse, saddle 
and bridle....bedstead and furniture....cow and calf...valued at 1685

10.  File Box D - I Case 8033 Giles CO TN
	DALY vs DALY 
	Estate of William DALY.  : Mary Ann KYLE, mother of William R. KYLE, Thomas B., Caroline 
BRIDGEFORTH, William E., Josiah, Richard, Samuel, Most of Case missing.

Some records have her death date as 1850 when in fact it was 1830. The headstone is hard to read, but 
records show that William J. was in Brazoria County Texas in 1839 .along with his son William Rufus


William and Mary had the following children:

+	2	M	i.	William Rufus KYLE  was born on 19 Dec 1829. He died on 14 Mar 1859. 


Second Generation

	2.	William Rufus KYLE  (William Jefferson) was born on 19 Dec 1829 in , Giles, Tennessee.
He died on 14 Mar 1859 in Sandy Point, Brazoria, Texas. He was buried in Sandy Point Cemetery, Fort
Bend, Texas. 

William married Ellen COFFEE  daughter of Thomas Jefferson COFFEE and Malinda Graves HALEY
on 30 Jun 1853 in Fort Bend, Brazoria ,  Texas. Ellen was born on 17 Jun 1835 in  Texas. She died
on 5 Apr 1866 in Sandy Point, Brazoria, Texas. She was buried in Sandy Point Cemetery, Fort Bend, Texas. 


William and Ellen had the following children:

	3	M	i.	William Jefferson KYLE  was born about 1855 in , , Texas. 

1880 Census Tunica Mississippi...
W, J. Kyle  25  Tx  Tn  Ms   grocer
R.C.  Kyle  21  Tx   Tn  Ms  grocer


	4	F	ii.	Cassie KYLE  was born about 1857 in , , Texas. 

1880 Collin Co Texas Census in home of uncle Aaron Coffee born 1832


	5	M	iii.	Rufus C KYLE  was born about 1859 in , , Texas. 

1880 in Tunica Mississippi with brother William Jefferson Kyle

Submitted by Shirley Hargrove