Jared E. Groce, one of the wealthiest of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, arrived in Texas in 1822 and established his first plantation, Bernardo, on the Brazos River. He later built a second, larger estate known as Groce's Retreat inland from the river near present-day Hempstead in Waller County, seeking higher ground away from the malaria-prone river bottoms. Like Bernardo, Groce's Retreat functioned as a working cotton plantation dependent on the forced labor of enslaved people, who cleared land, planted and picked cotton, and operated one of the earliest cotton gins in the region, making Groce among the largest slaveholders and cotton producers in early Texas. The plantation gained lasting historical importance during the Texas Revolution: George C. Childress reportedly drafted portions of the Texas Declaration of Independence while staying there in early 1836, and President David G. Burnet's ad interim government briefly used the plantation as a seat of government in March 1836 while fleeing Santa Anna's advancing army. The Groce family also supplied rations and ferry service to Sam Houston's army in the days before the Battle of San Jacinto. Jared Groce died in November 1836, and the plantation passed through later owners; none of its original structures survive. Today the site is preserved only through a state historical marker near Hempstead, commemorating its agricultural role and its brief service as a refuge for the Republic of Texas government.