Liendo Plantation

About this property

Liendo Plantation is a historic cotton plantation in Waller County, Texas, United States. Named after its original owner, José Justo Liendo, the plantation was purchased in 1873 by sculptor Elisabet Ney and her husband, physician Edmund Montgomery. The plantation home was given a state historical marker in 1936, and the entire plantation was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1964. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 1971. The land that is now Liendo Plantation was granted to José Justo Liendo in 1828, when the region was a part of Mexico. In 1841, Leonard Waller Groce purchased the plot, making the land into a working cotton plantation, adding a plantation house to the site in 1853. During the American Civil War, the Confederate States Army used the complex as "Camp Groce," first as a training camp and then as a military prison. The Confederate Military Post of Hempstead was established in the Spring of 1861. Numerous camps of instruction were established east of town along Clear Creek. Camp Hebert was established on the eastern bank of Clear Creek and south of Washington Road. Camp Hebert was the earliest camp in the area and served as the headquarters of the Post of Hempstead early in the war. Camp Groce CSA was established in the spring of 1862 on Liendo Plantation on the eastern bank of Clear Creek as a camp of instruction for Confederate infantry recruits. Originally named Camp Liendo, the name was changed to Camp Groce in honor of Leonard Waller Groce, the owner of Liendo Plantation and the enslaver of over 100 people. A contract to construct the barracks at Camps Groce and Hebert was let in February 1862. Numerous Confederate infantry regiments were organized, trained, and equipped at Camps Groce and Hebert. The camps were abandoned in the spring of 1862 due to their sickly locations. Camp Groce was reused as a military camp until the spring of 1863 but was again abandoned. From 1861 to 1863, nearly 200 Confederate soldiers fell sick at Camps Groce and Hebert and died. Many were taken to the Post Hospital in the Planter's Exchange Hotel located at the southwest corner of 12th and Wilkins Streets in downtown Hempstead. Many died in the hospital, and almost all of them were buried on McDade Plantation west of town, which became the hospital cemetery. In June 1863, the Confederate Army re-opened Camp Groce prison camp for US Army prisoners captured in the Battles of Galveston (January 1, 1863) and Sabine Pass I (January 21, 1863). The Confederacy also sent US prisoners of war taken at the Battle of Sabine Pass II (September 8, 1863) to Camp Groce. In 1863, the Confederate Army imprisoned 427 US prisoners of war. That year 21 prisoners died; most were buried northeast of the camp, where most still rest.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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