Sweeny is a city in
Brazoria County, Texas
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 sta ...
, United States, the westernmost incorporated town in the county. The population is 3,626 as of 2020. The city's motto is "A City with Pride". The city was once known as Adamston.
Geography and transport
Sweeny is above sea level and is from the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
. The
San Bernard River
The San Bernard River is a river in Texas.
Course
San Bernard River flows from a spring near New Ulm, TexasTexas Highways http://texashighways.com/travel/item/716-now-open-san-bernard-river to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, some to the sou ...
flows east of city limits.
The town is in a dense forest on coastal plains.
Sweeny is at the intersections of
Texas Farm to Market Roads 1459 and 524 along the Missouri Pacific Railroad twenty miles southwest of Angleton in west central Brazoria County.
The
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
cuts a path through a small piece of the south side of Sweeny, with two grade crossings and a railyard. Train speeds through here usually range from .
Demographics
As of the
2020 United States census
The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...
, there were 3,626 people, 1,473 households, and 986 families residing in the city.
At the 2000
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
,
there were 3,624 people, 1,338 households and 974 families residing in the city. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...
was 1,946.6 per square mile (752.3/km). There were 1,444 housing units at an average density of 775.6 per square mile (299.7/km). The racial makeup of the city was 75.25%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 15.78%
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 1.02%
Native American, 0.41%
Asian
Asian may refer to:
* Items from or related to the continent of Asia:
** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia
** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia
** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 5.99% from
other races
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 1.55% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
or
Latino
Latino or Latinos most often refers to:
* Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America
* Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States
* The people or cultures of Latin America;
** Latin A ...
of any race were 13.71% of the population.
There were 1,338 households, of which 38.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.8% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.2% were non-families. Of all households, 23.7% were made up of individuals, and 11.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.14.
Of the population, 29.7% were under the age of 18, 8.4% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 122.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 145.3 males.
The
median household income
The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two equal groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of ...
was $36,497 and the median family income was $42,128. Males had a median income of $43,854 compared with $25,710 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population.
Per capita i ...
for the city was $16,755. About 10.4% of families and 9.9% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, including 9.4% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.
Government and services
Sweeny has a council-manager form of government, following the adoption of a Home Rule Charter in 1999. The city council consists of a mayor and five council members serving two-year staggered terms. The city manager is appointed by the city council and is responsible for administration of the city. The City Judge remains an elected position, but all other department heads are appointed by the city manager with the approval of the City Council.
The city has a police department (Sweeny PD), a volunteer fire department (Sweeny Fire and Rescue), and a hospital (Sweeny Community Hospital) which is a state-recognized level IV trauma center and operates the city's
emergency medical services
Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
(Sweeny EMS).
The Sweeny Library, part of the
Brazoria County Library System, is located at 205 West Ashley-Wilson Road.
File:Sweeny TX US Post Office.jpg, US Post Office on 2nd (FM 1459) and Elm Streets
File:Sweeny TX City Hall.jpg, Sweeny City Hall on Ashley Wilson Road
File:Sweeny TX Library.jpg, Sweeny Community Library on Ashley Wilson Road
Health care
The Sweeny Hospital District was established by an act of the Texas Legislature in 1963 following a decade-long community effort to expand healthcare in the area. Since opening in 1965, Sweeny Community Hospital has continued to grow, employing approximately 190 employees in Sweeny, Brazoria, and West Columbia. It is licensed for 20 inpatient beds, and is a Level IV Trauma Center with a dedicated surgical suite.
File:Sweeny TX Hospital.jpg, Sweeny Community Hospital on FM 1459
History
Sweeny's settlement, though not under this name, began before Texas was even a Republic. Imla Keep, a doctor and member of
Stephen F. Austin
Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,Hatch (1999), p. 43. he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization ...
's
Old Three Hundred
The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was head of a household, or, in some cases, a partnership of married men. Austin was an American approved in 18 ...
colonists, received title to a league and labor of land that included the site of Sweeny on July 24, 1824. Keep eventually returned to Louisiana, and
Martin Varner acquired the land. The land was named for John Sweeny, a Tennessee colonist who arrived with family members and 250 slaves in the area in 1833. He came after his sons, William Burrell and Thomas Jefferson Sweeny, had purchased land grants near the townsite. They purchased the land grants for the price of a load of mules, and came to examine their new land holdings in 1831. John Sweeny settled nearby, and in 1835, purchased the original Imla Keep League from Varner and constructed a house on the site.
The home, today the Sweeny Plantation, a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, was occupied by original family members through the 1990s. The original home was built in 1837 by slaves using only bricks, nails, and cypress and
ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
wood from the land. There were also 30 slave cabins made of
cypress
Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...
wood. The plantation had its own sawmill, sugar house, cotton gin, blacksmith shop, commissary, and a kiln for brick manufacture.
The town was named for John Sweeny.
The original town stood in a forest of hardwoods with soil twenty feet deep. Sweeny was briefly called Adamston when the
St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway reached the area in 1905 and laid a side track lined with gardens to the community.
A post office was established in 1895, closed in 1897, and was reestablished in 1909 as Sweeny. Sweeny's cotton gin and general store were built by 1908, a school was organized in 1911 with eleven students, and church services were held in 1912, when a Civic Club was founded to promote civic and social improvements. Around 1910 the R. D. McDonald Bernard River Land Development Company, which later gave a plot of land to each church denomination, purchased acreage in the area, cut it into lots, and sold it.
Burton D. Hurd platted the townsite in 1911. His Burton D. Hurd Industrial Land Company promoted ten-acre suburban garden farms in the area with the slogan, "Soil Richer Than the Valley of the River Nile" to prospective settlers.
By 1914 the community had a hotel, a flour mill, three general stores, a cotton gin, a gristmill, a sawmill, and a population of 200. In the 1920s Sweeny shipped cotton, vegetables, live-oak parts for ships, and, for a time, bullfrogs raised by area farmers. In 1918 it had a brick factory and an orange orchard. Sweeny had an independent school system by 1912; school enrollment reached 236 by 1927, and by 1937 the community had three black schools and an all-grade white school with six teachers. The
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
operated briefly and held one cross-burning in the community.
In 1934, oil was discovered in
Old Ocean, creating development which made Sweeny prosper. In 1942, a government
carbon black
Carbon black (subtypes are acetylene black, channel black, furnace black, lamp black and thermal black) is a material produced by the incomplete combustion of coal and coal tar, vegetable matter, or petroleum products, including fuel oil, fluid ...
plant was built which was taken over by
Phillips Petroleum
Phillips Petroleum Company was an American oil company incorporated in 1917 that expanded into petroleum refining, marketing and transportation, natural gas gathering and the chemicals sectors. It was Phillips Petroleum that first found oil in the ...
, which developed the facilities into a refinery, natural gas liquids center, and petrochemicals complex with pipelines to markets in the eastern United States. In 2000, Phillips Petroleum merged with
Conoco Inc.
Conoco Inc. ( ) was an American oil and gas company that operated from 1875 until 2002, when it merged with Phillips Petroleum to form ConocoPhillips. Founded by Isaac Elder Blake in 1875 as the "Continental Oil and Transportation Company". Cur ...
to form ConocoPhillips. Sweeny's population in the latter 20th century has fluctuated from 3,087 to 3,699.
File:Sweeny TX Levi Jordan Plantation.jpg, Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site
The Levi Jordan Plantation is a historical site and building, located on Farm to Market Road 521, southwest of the city of Brazoria, Texas, Brazoria, in the U.S. state of Texas. Founded as a forced-labor farm worked by Slavery in the United Stat ...
on FM 521
File:Sweeny TX VFW Post 8551 Howitzer.jpg, 155 mm Howitzer at VFW Post 8551 on FM 1459
Timeline of Sweeny
Education
Schools are part of the
Sweeny Independent School District
Sweeny Independent School District is a public school district based in Sweeny, Texas, United States. The district is approximately and serves the City of Sweeny and surrounding area. The mascot of the high school is the Bulldog, and the mascot ...
which serves the city of Sweeny as well as outlying areas including Churchill, Shady Acres, River's End and
Old Ocean. The high school's mascot is the Bulldog.
Schools in the district are Sweeny Elementary (K–5), Sweeny Junior High (6–8) and
Sweeny High School (9–12), which is a 3A school. In 2007, construction began on the high school to renovate the current building. With growing security concerns, the Board of Trustees approved the renovation of the school, because most of the campus was open to the outside. The new school will have limited outside access. Classes met in the new on building December 1, 2008.
The
Texas Legislature
The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful ...
assigned the area in Sweeny ISD to the
Brazosport College
Brazosport College (BC) is a public community college in Lake Jackson, Texas. The college was opened in 1968 and offers primarily associate degrees and some bachelor's degrees. The campus features The Clarion, a regional musical performance ven ...
district. Brazosport College and
Wharton County Junior College
Wharton County Junior College (WCJC) is a public community college with its main campus in Wharton, Texas. The college also has campuses in Richmond, Sugar Land, and Bay City. WCJC is accredited by the Southern Association of College ...
are both within a 45-minute drive of Sweeny.
File:Sweeny TX High School.jpg, Sweeny High School on Ashley-Wilson Road
File:Sweeny TX Jr High School.jpg, Sweeny Junior High School on Elm Street
File:Sweeny TX Elementary School.jpg, Sweeny Elementary School on Sycamore Street
File:Sweeny TX ISD Administration.jpg, Sweeny ISD Administration Building
Elementary: Pre K–5th grade
Junior High: 6th–8th grade
High School: 9–graduation
Notable people
![sweeny4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Sweeny4.jpg)
*
Ray Butler, former
NFL wide receiver, Baltimore Colts and Seattle Seahawks
*
Tank Carder
Ricky "Tank" Carder Jr. (born January 18, 1989) is a former American football linebacker. Carder played college football at TCU. He was a 2010 All-American selection by the American Football Coaches Association.
Early life
When he was 10 year ...
, TCU linebacker
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...
*
Kevin Garrett
Kevin Rashard Garrett (born July 29, 1980) is a former American football player. Garrett attended Southern Methodist University and was drafted in the 2003 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams. He has previously played football with the St. Louis Ra ...
, former NFL cornerback
*
Rusty Hall, NHRA Stock Eliminator Drag Racer. Winner of the 2002 U.S. Nationals, Multi-time National and Divisional Event Winner. Division 7 Champion 2010
[http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=220332]
*
Johnnie Lee Higgins
Johnnie Lee Higgins (born September 8, 1983) is a former professional American football wide receiver. Higgins played college football for the University of Texas at El Paso. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the third round (99th pick ...
, former NFL wide receiver
*
Tracy Simien
Tracy Anthony Simien (born May 21, 1967) is a former professional American football linebacker. He played college football at Texas Christian University. He played eight seasons in the NFL, mainly for the Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chi ...
, former NFL linebacker
*
Darrel Johnson
Darrel Johnson (born February 21, 1959) is a former college basketball coach. He was head coach of the Baylor Bears team from 1992 to 1994. He was previously head coach at Oklahoma Baptist University from 1985 to 1990 and at Oklahoma City Univer ...
Fort Cobb Longhorn Class of 1990
*
Clarence Williams, former NFL defensive tackle
*
Cedric Woodard
Cedric Darnell Woodard (born September 5, 1977) is a former American football defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He played college football at T ...
, former NFL defensive tackle
*
Elmo Wright
Elmo Wright (born July 3, 1949) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). While at the University of Houston, he became the first football player ever to perform an end zone dance.
Wright was an All-A ...
, former NFL wide receiver, credited with the first touchdown celebration dance
References
External links
City of Sweeny official website
{{authority control
Cities in Brazoria County, Texas
Cities in Texas
Greater Houston
Slave cabins and quarters in the United States