FANNIN-MIMS PLANTATION. The Fannin-Mims Plantation was located on the west bank of the San Bernard River four miles west of Brazoria, near the present Sportsman Span bridge in southwest Brazoria County. The plantation was jointly owned by Col. James Fannin, Jr., and Joseph Mims from 1834 until Fannin's death at Goliad in 1836. Fannin, who engaged in slave trading, provided slaves for the enterprise. After completing a five-year partnership contract, Mims acquired Fannin's portion of the property, built a mansion, and raised cotton. Mims's estate at his death in 1844 comprised 3,000 acres, thirty-nine slaves, sixty cattle, and 220 bales of cotton but was heavily encumbered with debt. After Mims's death, his widow, Sarah (Weekly), converted the plantation from cotton to sugar production. Between 1852 and 1858 she harvested five sugar crops, 368 hogsheads in 1852 alone. The estate continued to expand, and by 1860 had 700 improved acres and 103 slaves. In 1860 Sarah Mims reported real property assessed at $73,480 and personal property valued at $96,030, and the plantation produced 700 bushels of corn, 105 bales of cotton, and 65 hogsheads of sugar. The plantation's activities ceased with the Civil War.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989).
