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| History of our County |
Fort Bend County holds a prominent
place in Texas history. Karankawa Indians once roamed
the plains and inhabited the river bottoms. In the early
1820’s, the Anglo-American colonization of Texas under
grants from the Spanish government was initiated. The
arrival of Stephan F. Austin’s original colony of 300
families at the bend of the Brazos River was delayed
until 1822 by the death of Moses Austin and the
independence of Mexico. Ninety miles inland from the
coast the settlers built a two-room cabin that was known
both as Fort Settlement and Fort Bend. Fifty-three of
the land grants to the early settlers were in Fort Bend.
They found the area suitable for crops and livestock.
In 1837, the Congress of the Republic of Texas
incorporated Richmond and eighteen other towns. Later in
the same year, the County of Fort Bend was created from
portions of Austin, Harris and Brazoria County. Notable
citizens of the county included Jane Long, Mirabeau B.
Lamar, and Samuel May Williams. During the Texas
Revolution, many of the residents fled from Santa Anna’s
troops in what became known as the Runaway Scrape. They
returned to find their homes plundered and their
livestock scattered or dead. Richmond became a
prosperous trade center for the surrounding agricultural
region. Cotton and sugar and other products were sent
down the Brazos River to the Port of Galveston. The
early sugar cane plantations and farms supplied the
Imperial Sugar industrial complex and its company town
evolved into the current City of Sugar Land.
When the railroad from Galveston through Richmond was
built in the 1850’s, the county became a ready provider
of agricultural products and raw materials to coastal
markets and beyond. Cotton became and continues to be a
staple of the agricultural economy. Much of the early
prosperity based on the plantation system ended with the
Civil War. Fort Bend planters and property owners
generally supported the Confederacy and many joined
Terry’s Texas Rangers, led by Benjamin F. Terry of Sugar
Land. No battles reached the area, but the war’s
duration and the economic, social and political
hardships that followed put great stress on the
community.
The years after the Civil War were a time of uneasy
compromise between the political parties and
officeholders. This resulted in a brief, but violent
confrontation known as the Jaybird - Woodpecker War. The
era of reconstruction lasted until 1888, when the
Jaybird Party took control. They were powerful in Fort
Bend County until the 1950’s.
Additional railroads further opened the county to new
settlers, many from central Europe. Small productive
family farms formed the central focus of the economic
and social life from the 1880’s through World War II.
Ranching and cotton production then began to replace the
small farms. Missouri City, Stafford, and Rosenberg
developed along the rail lines. Discovery of oil and gas
at Blueridge in the early 1920’s, followed by
discoveries at Orchard and Thompsons, then later at
Katy, signaled the beginning of Fort Bend’s petroleum
industry. Production continues today in several areas of
the county.
Beginning in the early 1970’s with Houston’s expansion,
Fort Bend saw new growth in the form of increased
residential development. Greatwood, New Territory and
Cinco Ranch followed the master-planned communities of
Quail Valley, First Colony and Pecan Grove. More
recently Sienna Plantation, River Park, Canyon Gate,
Riverstone, Texana Plantation and Cross Creek Ranch have
joined the ranks. Fort Bend has a long and richly varied
history and an exceedingly bright future as it continues
to build on the foundations established by the original
settlers of Texas.
Source: Fort Bend County Annual Operating Budget Book,
Fiscal Year 2008 |
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