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The Harrell home was built in the late 1840's or early 1850's.  A.W. Harrell was one of the early settlers in the Stephens Creek area, having operated a large plantation of several thousand acres.  As time went by the plantation consisted of some four and one half league's of over three thousand acres.

The plantation raised cotton and other plants which it shipped to Galveston.  It raised many hogs, cattle, milk cows, chickens and others as it required a large amount of food to feed the Harrell family and hands that worked on the plantation as well as the animals on the plantation.

At the time, the plantation was like a town as there were a lot of houses...as many were for the hands that worked and lived on the property.

As there was no cemetery for the plantation hands, as most were black, they were given the right to be buried in the Harrell cemetery.  In later years the cemetery was given to the blacks and has been used as a public cemetery.

Sam Houston used to come over from his home in Huntsville to his farm at Raven Hill and then he would come over to the Harrells' where he would spend the night.  The next day he would have a hand take him to the mouth of Stephen's Creek where a Choctaw village was located.  A white flag would be placed so the captain of the steamboat would know that Sam Houston would be going to Galveston and the captain would blow the whistle.  The steamboat would go up the Trinity River about four miles to Point Blanco (Point White, later changed to Point Blank) to pick up wood for the boilers for the trip back down the river.  The mail would also be left at the trading post at Point Blanco.

The large Harrell home is still standing and has lumber on the outside of the house covering the cypress logs the house is built with.  Two of the beams can still be seen extending on either side of the chimney.

In 1969, the 90,000 acre Lake Livingston was completed.  The Harrell plantation went under water except the eighty four acres on a hill where the cemetery and the Harrell home is located.

**NOTE....The Harrell Cemetery was designated a "Historical Texas Cemetery" by the Texas Historical Commission in 2001.