Sargent

Sargent, on Farm Road 457 five miles northwest of the Gulf of Mexico and twenty-four miles southeast of Bay City in the eastern corner of Matagorda County, was named for George Sargent, an Englishman who immigrated to Texas from Cornwall, England, in 1834. Sargent purchased some bottomland near Caney Creek in 1844 and built a house three or four miles inland from the Gulf between Caney Creek and Cedar Lake. In those days Caney Creek had deep water and was navigable. During the Civil War Sargent was able to ship his beef and cotton undetected from Caney Creek through the Union blockade. After the war the Sargents continued in the cattle business. In the summer of 1875 George Sargent's son John, with some neighbors, drove more than 3,000 cattle along the Salt Grass and the Chisholmqv trails to Abilene. Courtesy www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hns21