Wharton is located on the Colorado River, 30 miles southwest of Sugar Land and 55 miles from downtown Houston. Located 45 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, the elevation is 101 feet. – Wharton Chamber of Commerce
Farewell: a Memoir of a Texas Childhood, by Horton Foote (New York: Scribner, 1999 - out of print, but available)
Born on March 14, 1916, playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote remembers his childhood in tiny Wharton, Texas, the inspiration for much of his work. “Having kept no diary or journal,” Foote relies on memory to bring to life family, neighbors, friends, town, region, and the time in which he grew up.
The Kincheloe plantation had been divided and subdivided many times before my grandfather bought his acreage in 1896, which included a Victorian cottage of six rooms. Later, in the early twenties, the house was remodeled and enlarged by my grandparents into the handsome one that I remember.
The house was set well back from Richmond Road, which was graveled then; four live oak trees lined the road, on one side of the yard were three more live oaks and directly in front of the house to the right of the porch steps was the cypress tree. On the opposite side of the yard was a huge sycamore tree and, beyond that, close to the side of the house were three fig trees. In the backyard were a pecan, a persimmon and a pomegranite tree.
The house was built high off the ground, so high, in fact, that I could and did play underneath it as a child, walking about very comfortably until I was ten or so. The porch or gallery was twelve feet wide, and here was a swing and comfortable wicker rocker chairs (five as I remember). A great deal of time, especially at night or early morning, was spent on the porch by the family. – from Farewell: a Memoir of a Texas Childhood, by Horton Foote
Related Website
The Horton Foote Society