History
Albert and Ethel Herzstein
Albert H. Herzstein was born March 5, 1907, into a Jewish immigrant family in Trinidad, Colorado. The family lived in Clayton, New Mexico, and moved to Denver, Colorado, before Albert moved to Houston in 1925 and began working for a small welding company. Ethel Ann Davis was born April 13, 1896, in Fulshear, to a pioneer family.
History
Andrew Jackson Beard
A veteran of San Jacinto. Born in Arkansas May 29, 1814; died in 1866. His wife Sallie Pentecost Beard, born in June, 1818; died in 1857. (Big Creek Cemetery)
History
Beasley
Founded 1894 by Cecil A. Beasley (1862 - 1908), on the Texas & New Orleans Railroad. First called "Dyer" for Isabel Dyer (1871 - 1933), whom Beasley later married. Post office opened as "Beasley," May 13, 1898. The town boomed in 1910, as Stern & Stern Land Co. of Kansas City promoted land sales through a town lot auction. Many new settlers were German and Czech families from Washington County.
History
Booth
Freeman Irby (F.I.) Booth came in 1885 to Richmond, where he met and wed Mildred Ryon Wheat in 1889. They purchased land and built a home here. In the 1890s, Booth brought 30 families from South Carolina to work the land, planting cotton, corn and rice. These families built houses and the Mt. Zion Church, and the settlement grew.
History
Brown-Beard Cemetery
Begun in the Big Creek settlement area as the Pentecost Graveyard. This cemetery dates to at least 1841 with the burial of George s. Pentecost, an "Old 300" colonist. Also buried here are six of his children and their spouses, including son-in-law Samuel Pharr, an "Old 300" colonist on whose 1831 land grant the cemetery is located. Texas Revolution veterans George W. Pentecost and Andrew J.
Transport
Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado, First Railroad in Texas
Planned 1840 to benefit the Republic of Texas by moving rich sugar and cotton crops from plantation areas. Chartered 1841 by 5th Congress of the Republic, in name of Harrisburg Railroad & Trading Company. H. R. & T. C. did not succeed in building a railroad. Its holdings were transferred in 1847 to Gen.
History
Cesinger Cemetery
Frederick and Anna Cesinger brought their family to this area to live in 1891. They bought a 320-acre tract of land, and two years later deeded 160 acres to their son, George. In 1894, when George's sister Philipina died just one month before her eighth birthday, he set aside one acre of land for a family burial ground.
History
Charles Harvey Waddell
(January 18, 1888 - January 28, 1950) A native of Arkansas, Charles Harvey Waddell came to Texas with his family at an early age. He became an automobile dealer in 1910 and in 1914 formed the Fort Bend Telephone Company. He served as county tax collector from 1919 to 1922, and from 1926 to 1930 represented Waller and Fort Bend counties in the State Legislature.
History
City of Richmond
Area was settled in 1822 by members of Stephen F. Austin's colony, who first called their community "Fort Settlement." Earliest known burial was made by Wm. Morton, who donated land for Morton Cemetery. Town was formally laid out 1837 by land promoters R. E. Handy and Wm. Lusk, who named it for Richmond, Virginia. City was elected county seat in 1838. Most famous resident was Mrs.
History
Constantine W. Buckley
Texas Confederate Legislator (1815 - 1865) Came to Texas from Georgia, 1838. Clerk, Republic of Texas State Department. Prominent Fort Bend County planter, lawyer, district judge and legislator. Served as one of the speakers of Texas House of Representatives in critical Civil War years, 1861-65.
History
Daniel Perry
Daniel Perry, an early area settler, was born in 1791 in Mississippi. He came to Texas in 1832 with his wife Eliza Whitehead and two sons. He was widowed and in 1833 married Louisa Ann Morton. They had four chidlren and lived on her inherited land on the David Fitzgerald League. Perry joined the Texas Army as a captain and recruiter.
Military
Dismounted Texas Cavalry
The 95,000 men of military age in Civil War Texas, unaccustomed to walking, preferred the daring and mobility of the cavalry used to scout the enemy, screen troop movements and make lightning attacks. 58,533 Texans joined it, riding their own horses or ones donated by citizens' groups. Many of Texas' 325,000 horses were sent to other states. Yet footsoldiers were needed, too.
History
Duke Community
In 1824, Old Three-Hundred settlers David Fitzgerald, Thomas Barnett and Moses Shipman received land grants in this area. Fitzgerald fought at Anahuac in 1832; Barnett signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. This location on the northeastern high bluff of Clear Lake, an ample supply of water for steam engines, led to the construction of railroads here by the mid-1800s.
History
Early Courthouse Square
This square was deeded in 1838 to Fort Bend County by Robert E. Handy and William Lusk, founders of Richmond. It was site of 1850-1871 and 1888-1909 courthouses. Completed here 1888 was a two-story brick Victorian courthouse with bell tower and clock -- the pride of city and county.
History
Erastus ("Deaf") Smith
(April 17, 1787 - November 30, 1837) Most famous scout in Texas War for Independence. Obeyed Gen. Sam Houston's strategic order, then raised San Jacinto Battle Cry: "Fight for your lives! Vince's Bridge has been cut down." A native of New York, Smith settled in 1821 in San Antonio.
History
Fort Bend
Built in November, 1821 by William Little, William Smithers, Charles Beard, Joseph Polly and Henry Holster. Its name was given to the county when created in 1837.
Architecture
Fort Bend County Courthouse
This classical revival building is the fifth courthouse for Fort Bend County, which was organized in 1837. The structure was designed by C. H. Page of Austin and dedicated in 1909. The contractor was the Texas Building Company, also of Austin. Exterior styling features a dome, statue, and cornices of copper. The interior has a 3-story rotunda, mosaic tile floors, and green glazed tile wainscoting.
Architecture
Fort Bend County Jail
Completed in 1897, this structure was the third jail building in Fort Bend County. Built to communicate strength and justice to the area's lawless elements, the imposing Romanesque revival style structure features terra cotta decoration and massive arches. The interior included living quarters for the sheriff and a third floor gallows. It served as the Fort Bend County Jail until 1955.
Industry & Science
Fort Bend Telephone Company
Founded in 1914, the Fort Bend Telephone Company began when Charles H. waddell purchased nine individual telephone lines in the Needville community and established a central switchboard exchange. The company grew quickly and soon connected the neighboring towns of Beasley, Brookshire, Damon, Fairchild, Guy, Katy, and Pattison.
History
Foster Community
The Foster community began in the fall of 1821 as a permanent campsite settled by Randolph Foster (1790-1887) on what was then one of the largest single land grants in Texas (11,601 acres). The John Foster grant, deeded by Stephen F. Austin, came from the relationship between Foster, his father John (1757-1837) and Austin.
History
Fulshear Cemetery
More than six acres here of the Mexican land grant acquired in 1824 by "Old 300" colonist Churchill Fulshear, Jr., were donated to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, by Churchill Fulshear, Jr., in 1851. Originally Union Chappel Cemetery, it was renamed Fulshear for the town that developed here in the 1890s. The first recorded burial is that of Mahalia Sparks in 1850.
History
Hope Lutheran Church
In the 1910s, the Rev. C. Merkel, pastor of an Evangelical Lutheran church in Needville, came to Beasley and invited local Lutherans to services held in the Beasley School building. Many attended, and they later petitioned the Rev. Apfelbach to minister the new congregation. Meeting at the Modena Schoolhouse, charter members organized in February 1918, calling the church Die Ev.
History
Imperial Prison Farm Cemetery
Prior to the Civil War, this rich river bottom land was known for its cotton, corn and sugar cane crops and sugar mill. With the emancipation of slaves in 1865, area plantation owners struggled to work the fields and mill. In 1878, landowners L. A. Ellis and E. H. Cunningham negotiated a lease with the State of Texas to open a private prison, leasing convicts for labor.
History
John Foster
John Foster John Foster was born on May 25, 1757, in South Carolina to William James and Mary (Hill) Foster. Family history indicates he may have served with his brothers in Charleston against a British attack in June 1776. He married Rachel (Gibson), and they had at least six children, four of whom eventually lived in Texas.
History
John Foster Land Grant
John Foster (1757-1837) came to Texas in 1822 as a member of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colony. He received a grant of about 12,000 acres of land from the Mexican government. Following his death the land was divided among his ten children. A community which grew up in the area was named Foster.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
