After the 1880s, German and Slavic (Czech) families poured into East Bernard, farming cotton and rice and bringing their food, faith, and language with them. One anchor became the KJT, short for Katolicka Jednota Texaska, or Catholic Union of Texas, a Czech Catholic fraternal society founded statewide in 1889. Local Society No. 40 hosts events at Riverside Hall, built in 1927 on the east bank of the San Bernard River off Highway 90A on Buls Road. Since 1992 that hall has hosted the Czech Kolache-Klobase Festival, drawing crowds for polka, sausage (klobase), and hundreds of the sweet fruit-and-cheese pastries called kolaches. It is a fitting spot: the festival sits on the same east side of the river where Jethro Spivi's first cabin gave the town its name more than a century before.

Why It Is East Bernard RoadyGoat

1850

The name is a compass reading. Around 1850, Jethro Spivi built the first residence here on the EAST bank of the San Bernard River, so the settlement became East Bernard. Growth was slow until 1859, when the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway (the first operating railroad in Texas, begun at Harrisburg in 1853) reached Eagle Lake and crossed the river near here. A depot called Bernard Station opened, and by 1869 it was moved from the east bank to the west side, where Main Street grew up around it. A post office followed in 1866, and the community was probably not officially named East Bernard until 1874. Ironically, the town that carries an eastern name has spent its whole life on the river's west bank, at the junction of State Highway 60 and U.S. 90A.

RoadyGoat →

The Machines That Made Rice Country RoadyGoat

1898

East Bernard sits on the eastern edge of the Lissie prairie, flat coastal grassland ideal for flooding rice, which needs standing water to grow. This land does not flood itself, so around 1900 engineers built the plumbing to deliver it. Captain William Dunovant planted 40 acres of rice on the south end of Eagle Lake in 1898, and canal companies soon pumped water from the Colorado River across the prairie. Within a few years more than 150 shallow wells dotted the area, and in 1903 a steam electric-generating plant east of Lissie powered seven of them, until canal irrigation from the Colorado River made them obsolete. By 1930 irrigated land in Wharton County had grown to 21,384 acres, and the county produced about one million bushels of rice, a feat of hydraulic engineering as much as farming.

Powell Point School

1869

William E. Kendall, an Anglo lawyer from Richmond, Texas, subdivided his plantation here into 100-acre farm tracts in 1869. He sold the land exclusively to Freedmen and by the 1880s a distinctly African American community named Kendleton had developed here. In 1890 local A. M. E. churches built three one-room schools to form Common School District No. 4, an all-African American district which included the original land grant of Elizabeth Powell. Tellie B. Mitchell, a Kendleton native and graduate of Wiley College (1903), returned to Kendleton and established Powell Point School in 1904 in a two-room schoolhouse. The school prospered and in 1918 graduated six students, five of whom went on to college and became educators. In 1923 Mitchell persuaded the Rosenwald Foundation to grant funds to build a new Powell Point School facility here with six classrooms, a library, and an auditorium. The school became a model institution and entry into its student body was an advantage sought by African American throughout southeast Texas. T. B. Mitchell served as school principal until 1954. Powell Point, today an elementary school, is a locally revered institution which symbolizes Kendleton's unique cultural heritage and promise for the future. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995

Historical Marker → · 4.7 mi away

Holy Cross Catholic Parish

1880

Many Catholic Czechoslovakian immigrants settled in the prairies near East Bernard in the 1880s. Visiting priests served their religious needs. In 1900 the settlers began the establishment of a parish by purchasing cemetery property in East Bernard. The first Holy Cross Church, a small frame structure, was built in 1905 by Valentine Kozelsky on two acres of land donated by Jan and Anna Vacek. A rectory was built in 1921 for the first permanent resident pastor, the Rev. Joseph C. Kunc. The Holy Cross Catholic school was organized in 1922. A new church building was constructed in 1925 by R. H. Reese of Eagle Lake. Houston architect M. J. Sullivan designed the Spanish Colonial revival structure. It featured a 70-foot belfry and imported Czechoslovakian adornments including statues, painted copper wall hangings, and 10 large, unique stained glass windows of Roundel design. A new school and convent were built in 1928 in the same architectural style. The school operated until 1967. The Pioneer Chapel, a model of the original church, was built in 1994. Holy Cross Catholic Church is now the oldest Catholic church in continuous use in Wharton County. (1997)

Historical Marker →

K.J.T. St. Wenceslaus Society No. 40

1889

Beginning in the 1880s, Czech settlers came to this area, contributing to the development of East Bernard. To supprt Texas Czechs of the Catholic faith, residents of Bluff (Hostyn) established the Katolická Jednota Texasská, or Czech Catholic Union of Texas, in 1889. Known as the K.J.T., the group provided insurance and other member benefits. In 1905, men of East Bernard's Holy Cross Catholic parish organized a local chapter, K.J.T. St. Wenceslaus Society No. 40. Charter members were August E. Morris, R.W. Brandl, Frank Toman, John J. Vacek, Frank Polak, John Skalicky and John Slovak. By 1913, the group constructed a large hall at this site. It became a social center, with activities including conventions, bazaars and other events. The hall burned in 1939, and the members purchased Riverside Hall, built in 1925 east of town on the east bank of the San Bernard River. The large round structure had a tall central pole that helped support the circular ceiling and large roof beams. Over the next decades, Riverside Hall drew crowds to see acts that ranged from big band and polka musical acts to country and western and rock and roll performers. Thousands of people attended the klobase-kolache festivals held at the site in the late 1970s. In 1986, a fire destroyed the Riverside building. The K.J.T. built a new hall in 1987, and the group remains a social force in East Bernard, with more than 500 members. Now open to both men and women for membership, it offers insurance and clergy retirement benefits, youth activities and scholarships, and a host of other services. (2006)

Historical Marker →

East Bernard, TX

1850

East Bernard is on the west side of the San Bernard River at the intersection of State Highway 60 and U.S. Highway 90A, fifteen miles north of Wharton in northeast Wharton County. The community was originally on the east side of the river, where Jethro Spivi built the first residence around 1850; hence the name East Bernard. Settlement was slow until 1859 and the arrival of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway. A bridge was built, and the depot, Bernard Station, though originally located on the east bank of the river, was moved by 1869 to the west side, to the site of East Bernard's future Main Street. The rest of the town grew up around the railway. The first post office was established in 1866, but the community was probably not officially named East Bernard until 1874. After the Civil War the community began to grow rapidly, as new settlers arrived with British surnames. Although Joseph Habermacher operated a store and saddle shop in Bernard Station some time before 1867, the main influx of German and Slavic immigrants came after the 1880s. In the mid-1890s the farming community had a population of 150, and businesses included a steam gin, a gristmill, a telegraph office, and two general stores. The first church in East Bernard was established in 1893, when German Methodist settlers dismantled their church in Content, three miles south of Weimar, and moved it by rail to East Bernard, where it was rebuilt in 1909. Catholic and Baptist congregations started holding services in private homes around 1900; their sanctuaries were completed between 1905 and 1907. The present Catholic church, built in 1925, has stained glass windows from Czechoslovakia, mosaics from Munich, a statue of St. Anthony from Italy, and statuary carved in the German Tyrol. An Assembly of God congregation began Pentecostal services in a private home in 1970 and moved into a new building by 1978. The first school building was erected around 1888 one mile north of the depot; by 1912 a brick high school had been built in town. Around 1916 East Bernard became an independent school district, and by 1956 nearby schools in Nottawa, Muldoon, Bernard Prairie, and Lissie were consolidated with the East Bernard school. A Texas historical marker now marks the site of the original school. East Bernard has had several newspapers, the first of which, the East Bernard Tribune , began in the 1920s. In the late 1980s the town was served by a weekly paper with the same name. Riverside Hall, built in 1927 on the east bank of the river, became a popular dance pavilion, where Paul Whiteman was once featured. In the early years of the settlement pioneer merchants H. P. Stockton and John G. Leveridge had operated a banking business in the back of Leveridge's General Store; by 1907 they had organized the Union State Bank. R. B. Boettcher purchased the controlling stock in 1911. In 1960 J. R. Peace, owner of a large furniture company, helped organize a chamber of commerce, which, since East Bernard was unincorporated, performed much of the duties of a city government. The community later incorporated in 2000. In the 1980s East Bernard's economy, though centered on agriculture, also included a gas pipeline company, a major kite-manufacturer, and several research corporations. In 1988 the population of 1,500 was served by sixty-three businesses. In 1990 the population was 1,544, and in 2000 it had grown to 1,729. In 2016 the population was estimated at 2,309.

Tsha Handbook →

J. D. Hudgins Ranch

1882

The J. D. Hudgins Ranch was established in 1882 by Rachel Ann Northington McKenzie Hudgins and her four sons in Wharton County with main operations in Hungerford, fifty miles southwest of Houston on U.S. Highway 59, and six miles northeast of Wharton, Texas. The ranch is recognized by the Family Land Heritage as a 100-year-old family-run ranch, and it is acknowledged by the American Brahman Breeders Association as having the largest number of registered Gray Brahman cattle in the world. The J. D. Hudgins Ranch has never hired outside management and is one of the few United States ranches of its sales volume to be totally family run. After the death of Joel Hudgins in 1873, Rachel asked their son Josiah Dawson (J. D.) to take over the family interests. The family began purchasing land in Wharton County; acquiring over 10,000 acres, in addition to their other holdings. In 1897 the four brothers divided the property between themselves and operated independently. In 1908 J. D. and his wife Mollie (McKinney), formed a partnership with their four children, to be known as the J. D. Hudgins Ranch. J. D. took over ranch management and was in charge until his death in 1928, when his son, Walter J. Hudgins, directed ranch operations until his death in 1943. His son, Edgar H. Hudgins, supervised it until 1962, at which time the ranch was divided into five divisions, representing the family groups of the grandchildren of J. D. Hudgins. The ranch was still operating in 1985 under the Hudgins, Mangum, Locke, Forgason, and Koonce divisions. Originally the ranch maintained herds of slick-haired Louisiana cattle with a small amount of Brahman blood in them. In 1915 Hudgins purchased the ranch's first purebred Brahman cows from A. P. Borden; these animals were descendants of the herd brought from India by Borden in 1906. In 1933 the Hudgins Ranch purchased the gray Brahman bull Manso, a descendant of a pureblood Brazilian Brahma bred by the Sartwelle Brothers of Palacios, Texas. Manso sired 316 offspring in ten years, and today 65 percent of all the Brahman cattle registered by the American Brahman Breeders Association can trace their lineage directly back to this gentle, very beefy bull. Before Manso, Brahman cattle generally were wild, thin, and leggy. The half-circle "L" brand on the right hip of each animal is the registered J. D. Hudgins Ranch firebrand. Formerly the brand was used by J. D. Hudgins's nephew; it was chosen and bought by Hudgins because it was almost impossible for rustlers to alter. In addition to the ranch brand, each division has its own firebrand on the right forearm of each animal. In the late twentieth century the J. D. Hudgins Ranch shipped purebreds to forty-two different countries and thirty-four states in the United States. In some years up to 85 percent of all their cattle sales were shipped to foreign countries. The ranch began international sales in 1932. The National Cattleman's Association recognized J. D. Hudgins Ranch as being among the ten largest purebred (all breeds) cattle producers in the United States. The Hudgins Ranch, an original backer of the Houston Fat Stock Show, won the champion Brahman cow award at the first show in 1932 and at the fiftieth anniversary show in 1982. The cattle continued to capture awards, and by 1990 had won over 1,500 championships in exhibition rings in the U.S. and in foreign countries. The ranch was featured in Edgar H. Hudgins's book, Hudgins: Virginia to Texas , a first-place winner in the 1983 Texas Historical Commission Publication Contest. It is frequently featured in magazines like Texas Highways . The family office building, from which the operations of the ranch are currently directed, stands at the crossroads of State Highway 60 and Old U.S. Highway 59, directly across from an official Texas historical marker commemorating the ranch.

Tsha Handbook → · 8.7 mi away

Kendleton, TX

1860

Kendleton is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and Farm Road 2919, fourteen miles southwest of Rosenberg in western Fort Bend County. It was once the site of a plantation belonging to William E. Kendall. In the 1860s Kendall divided the plantation into small farms, which he sold to former slaves. The community that resulted became known as Kendleton. In 1882 the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway Company laid track between Rosenberg and Victoria, passing through Kendleton. A post office was established in 1884 with Benjamin F. Williams as postmaster. In 1890 Kendleton had a general store and twenty-five residents; by 1896 it had grown to include three general stores and a Methodist and a Baptist church, which served some 2,000 people in the surrounding rural area. The census of 1900 reported 116 residents in the town itself. The Kendleton schools also served a wider population than Kendleton proper. In 1903 the community had two schools for twelve White students and three schools for 202 Black students. The population of Kendleton fell to thirty-six in 1933 but rose again to 100 by the late 1940s. It fluctuated between 150 and 200 in the 1960s and early 1970s but, after voters chose to incorporate Kendleton in 1973, rose to more than 600. In 1990 Kendleton reported 496 residents. Locals estimated that there were around 2,200 people in the town and the surrounding area, however the 2000 census still reported a population of 466.

Tsha Handbook → · 7.2 mi away

Things to Do in East Bernard

quirky 19.4 mi away

Trio of Jumping Cows

A trio of multicolored fiberglass steers mounted to look like they are leaping skyward and salvaged from the 2001 CowParade Houston charity event now rises…

Everything Near East Bernard

597 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Kolaches on the East Bank · 0.2 mi
After the 1880s, German and Slavic (Czech) families poured into East Bernard, farming cotton and rice and bringing their food, faith, and language with them. One anchor became the KJT, short for Katolicka Jednota…
Holy Cross Catholic Parish · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
Many Catholic Czechoslovakian immigrants settled in the prairies near East Bernard in the 1880s. Visiting priests served their religious needs. In 1900 the settlers began the establishment of a parish by purchasing…
K.J.T. St. Wenceslaus Society No. 40 · 0.2 mi · Historical Marker
Beginning in the 1880s, Czech settlers came to this area, contributing to the development of East Bernard. To supprt Texas Czechs of the Catholic faith, residents of Bluff (Hostyn) established the Katolická Jednota…
Beaten 59-6, Then They Beat the Same Team in December · 0.5 mi
In November 2025, top-ranked Tidehaven beat East Bernard 59-6 with a running clock in the district championship game — what coach Jeremy Jenkins called the worst defeat in the history of East Bernard football. On…
Fifteen and Oh: The First Perfect Season in School History · 0.5 mi
East Bernard went 15-0 in 2012 under seventh-year coach Jerry Long — the first undefeated team in school history, a fact the Texas House of Representatives noted when it passed a resolution honoring them. In the…
Why It Is East Bernard · 0.5 mi
The name is a compass reading. Around 1850, Jethro Spivi built the first residence here on the EAST bank of the San Bernard River, so the settlement became East Bernard. Growth was slow until 1859, when the Buffalo…
The 1977 Brahmas Lost One Game All Year — By Three Points · 0.5 mi
East Bernard won its first football state championship on December 17, 1977, beating Seagraves 27-10 for the Class 1A title at Centex Stadium in Brownwood. The Brahmas broke it open late — trailing in scoring plays…
Brahmas vs Brahmas, and One Defensive Back Decided It · 0.5 mi
East Bernard reached the Class 3A Division II state semifinal on December 13, 2019 at Waco ISD Stadium unbeaten at 14-0, against an Omaha Paul Pewitt team that also calls itself the Brahmas. East Bernard led 18-8 on a…
The Machines That Made Rice Country · 0.5 mi
East Bernard sits on the eastern edge of the Lissie prairie, flat coastal grassland ideal for flooding rice, which needs standing water to grow. This land does not flood itself, so around 1900 engineers built the…
East Bernard, TX · 0.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
East Bernard is on the west side of the San Bernard River at the intersection of State Highway 60 and U.S. Highway 90A, fifteen miles north of Wharton in northeast Wharton County. The community was originally on the…
Krasna Settlement · 4.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be Krasna Settlement, a community founded by Czech immigrants right here in Fort Bend County. In 1891, Francis Smith started selling land, and by 1892, he donated four acres for a…
He Died With His Hands on the Wheel · 4.7 mi
U S Highway Ninety Alternate across Wharton County is the Johnnie David Hutchins Memorial Highway, honoring a Medal of Honor sailor. Hutchins was born in Weimar in nineteen twenty two, and as a boy he worked with his…

Show all 200 nearby places

Powell Point School · 4.7 mi · Historical Marker
William E. Kendall, an Anglo lawyer from Richmond, Texas, subdivided his plantation here into 100-acre farm tracts in 1869. He sold the land exclusively to Freedmen and by the 1880s a distinctly African American…
Riverside Hall: The Last Dance · 5.2 mi
If you want to find the soul of East Bernard, you’ll find it on the worn wooden floor of Riverside Hall. Built in 1927, this is one of the great original Texas dance halls, a place built by the community for the…
The Brahma Football Factory · 5.2 mi
There's something in the water in East Bernard, or maybe it's in the work ethic. For a town this size the trophy case is absurd, but the sport that fills it might surprise you. East Bernard's real dynasty is volleyball:…
The Science of the Rice Fields · 5.2 mi
The vast, flat fields around East Bernard aren't just farmland; they are massive, carefully engineered hydrological systems. Growing rice requires something most Texas farmers try to avoid: standing water. And the…
The Tale of Two Bernards · 5.2 mi
Here's a puzzle you can solve from the driver's seat. You're in East Bernard — and you're on the WEST side of the San Bernard River. The name is a fossil. The first settlement really was on the east bank, where a man…
Guardian Angel: A Czech Painted Church · 6.5 mi
Beginning around 1890, Czech immigrants settled the land around Wallis, and their faith left the town's most striking landmark. A congregation organized in 1892 by Czech families from Fayette County first worshipped in…
When the 1900 Storm Reached Inland · 6.5 mi
The 1900 Galveston hurricane is remembered for the coast, but its violence reached far inland toward Wallis. Hurricanes weakening over land often spawn tornadoes, because the storm's spiral bands wrap fast-moving air…
Guardian Angel Catholic Church · 6.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wallis, and right here, you're passing the site of Guardian Angel Catholic Church. This congregation started in 1892, organized by Czech families who moved here from Fayette County. They held…
Wallis State Bank · 6.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Wallis State Bank, founded right here in January 1906 with just ten thousand dollars. It started in a small frame building, but by 1912, this two-story brick structure went up, even…
From Bovine Bend to a Two-Railroad Junction · 7.0 mi
Wallis began as a bend in the prairie called Bovine Bend, which got a post office in 1873. Everything changed with steel rails. After 1880 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway pushed a Galveston-to-Brenham line…
Wallis, TX · 7.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wallis, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the railroad and a man named J.E. Wallis. It started out as Bovine Bend back in 1873, when the post office first opened. But when the Gulf,…
Wallis Methodist Church · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Wallis United Methodist Church. This congregation got its start back in 1890 when M.L.H. Harry deeded land for a new Methodist church. They officially consider 1893 their founding…
Hudgins Family Cemetery · 7.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton County, near Hungerford, and you're passing the Hudgins Family Cemetery. This burial ground began in 1851, serving generations of Joel and Rachel Hudgins's family. They had thirteen…
A Community of Their Own · 7.2 mi
Imagine it’s the late 1860s. You’ve been freed from slavery, but you own nothing and the future is uncertain. That was the reality for millions. But here, in what would become Kendleton, a different story unfolded. A…
The Teacher Who Built a Town · 7.2 mi
In the early days of Kendleton, one man stood out as a pillar of the new community: Benjamin Franklin Williams. The town itself grew out of William E. Kendall's plantation, carved up in the 1860s into small farms and…
Engineering the Prairie for Rice · 7.2 mi
As you look out at the fields surrounding Beasley, they seem perfectly, unnaturally flat. That’s not an accident; it’s a massive feat of agricultural engineering designed for one crop: rice. This coastal prairie is…
The Heart of the Community: Powell Point School · 7.2 mi
For nearly a century, the heart of Kendleton was the Powell Point School. From the community's earliest days, education was a top priority. The school you see today, now a community center, stands on the same ground as…
The Unruly River · 7.2 mi
The San Bernard River, which runs past Kendleton on its way to the coast, is both a blessing and a curse. Its ancient floods laid down the fertile soil that let this town farm. But from a hydrology standpoint the San…
Kendleton, TX · 7.2 mi
Kendleton's history began with its establishment by emancipated slaves after the Civil War. The area was once part of William E. Kendall's plantation, who in the 1860s divided his property into small farms and sold them…
Bought by the People Who Had Been Sold · 7.2 mi
You're driving through Kendleton, and the deed record is the whole story. In the 1860s the planter William E. Kendall cut his cotton plantation into small farms and sold them to the very people who had been enslaved on…
The Seventy-Year Wait to Become a City · 7.2 mi
Beasley was founded with a post office and a town plat in 1898, but it wasn't legally a city. For more than seventy years, it was just an unincorporated community, governed from the county seat in Richmond. That all…
Kendleton, TX: The Land Was Sold to the Freedmen · 7.2 mi
The engine that powered Kendleton for generations was agriculture, and the reason this town exists at all is that the land got sold to the people who worked it. Kendleton is a freedmen's town. In 1869 an Anglo lawyer…
Beasley, TX · 7.2 mi
The largest employer in the Beasley area is Hudson Products Corporation, which established manufacturing operations in 1973 on approximately 260 acres, located two miles west of Beasley. This large-scale manufacturing…
Kendleton, TX · 7.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Kendleton is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and Farm Road 2919, fourteen miles southwest of Rosenberg in western Fort Bend County. It was once the site of a plantation belonging to William E. Kendall. In the…
Kendleton · 7.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Kendleton, a town with roots stretching back to Mexican Texas. Elizabeth Powell's home once served as a stage stop right here. Imagine, in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1836</say-as>,…
Williams, Benjamin Franklin · 7.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
Benjamin Franklin Williams, legislator and clergyman, was born a slave in Brunswick County, Virginia, in 1819. He was taken to South Carolina, then to Tennessee in 1830, before being brought to Colorado County, Texas,…
Kendleton, TX: Hundred-Acre Tracts, Sold Only to Freedmen · 7.2 mi
The reason Kendleton could become a farming community is hidden right under your tires. You are driving on what geologists call the Lissie Formation, a layer of sand, silt and clay deposited by ancient rivers flowing…
The Crossroads of Cotton · 7.7 mi
There were people here before there were rails. Anglo settlers took up this strip between the Brazos and the San Bernard back in the late 1830s, and by 1873 the place had a post office under the name Bovine Bend. What…
The Diamond on the Prairie · 7.7 mi
Wallis is a civil-engineering artifact. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe came through this settlement — then called Bovine Bend, settled since the late 1830s — in 1880. Seven years later the San Antonio and Aransas Pass…
Wallis, TX · 7.7 mi
In 1830, the first Anglo-Americans settled in the area between the Brazos and San Bernard rivers. The settlement was named Bovine Bend when it got a post office in 1873. After the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was…
The Dented Ford Ranger Outside a Wallis Market · 7.7 mi
Three days after four-year-old Joy Norwood was struck and killed on a rural road near Simonton in April 2000, a deputy, David Fischer, noticed a white-and-maroon Ford Ranger with a strange-looking dent parked outside a…
Polka, Community, and the KJT Hall · 7.7 mi
As you explore Wallis, you'll notice a strong Czech heritage, and the building that embodies it is Guardian Angel Catholic Church. The parish was organized in 1892 by Czech families who had moved down from Fayette…
The Salt Dome Beneath Your Feet · 7.9 mi
The biggest thing that ever happened under Orchard is a geologic wonder about a mile down. Beneath this town sits the Orchard Salt Dome, a massive column of solid salt, shaped like a mushroom, that has been slowly…
The Farmers from Bohemia · 7.9 mi
The first European settlers in Orchard weren't looking for oil; they were looking for soil. In the 1880s and 90s, families from what is now the Czech Republic and Germany began arriving here. They left behind the…
Orchard, TX · 7.9 mi
Orchard is situated along State Highway 36 and the BNSF Railway, which serve as key transportation routes for the city. State Highway 36 connects Orchard to Rosenberg in Fort Bend County and Wallis in Austin County,…
Orchard, TX · 7.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Orchard, Texas, a community that owes its existence to a railroad and a visionary rancher. Back in 1890, S.K. Cross saw opportunity, selling off parts of his ranch to settlers, many of them…
William Henry and Lydia Ann English Guyler · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Wallis, and right here is the story of William Henry and Lydia Ann Guyler. They came to Texas in 1859, setting up a homestead and building a trading post, sawmill, and cotton gin that served folks…
Wallis Cemetery · 8.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Wallis Cemetery, also known as the Protestant Cemetery. This burial ground has served the Wallis community since the 1890s, with the earliest known burial being Virginia Pennington, who died in…
J. D. Hudgins Ranch · 8.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
The J. D. Hudgins Ranch was established in 1882 by Rachel Ann Northington McKenzie Hudgins and her four sons in Wharton County with main operations in Hungerford, fifty miles southwest of Houston on U.S. Highway 59, and…
Hungerford, TX · 8.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton County, and right here is Hungerford. It wasn't always called Hungerford, though. Back in the 1870s, this farming community was known as Quinan. It had a post office, a school, even a…
Chesterville Cemetery · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Chesterville Cemetery, a quiet resting place with roots in a big land promotion. Back in 1894, John Linderholm bought up over 60,000 acres in this area for development. The Chester and Kellison…
Hartsville Cemetery · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Hartsville Cemetery, established in 1899. It was recognized as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2006.
The Guitar Player Hungerford Sent to New York · 9.1 mi
A man named Ennis Lowery was born in Hungerford in 1923 and learned guitar from the bluesmen around here, playing juke joints in Wharton County. Around 1949 he went to New York, changed his name to Larry Dale, and…
Josiah Dawson Hudgins · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Josiah Dawson Hudgins. Josiah Dawson “J.D.” Hudgins, born in 1852, was one of four sons of Joel and Rachel Northington McKenzie Hudgins to survive to adulthood. Hudgins’…
J. D. Hudgins Ranch · 9.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton County, passing the historic J. D. Hudgins Ranch. It all started back in 1839 when Joel Hudgins arrived in the Republic of Texas. After his death, his wife Rachel and their sons took over,…
New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad and The Community of Hungerford · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Hungerford, Texas, a town born from a railroad with a funny nickname. Back in 1880, John W. Mackay, a silver baron, and Count Joseph Telfener, an Italian nobleman, started building the New York,…
Post West Bernard Station, Site of · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Post West Bernard Station, established in the summer of 1837. This was an important ordnance depot for the Republic of Texas army, strategically placed on the West Bernard River to guard…
Quinan Community, Site of · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Quinan, a Texas community founded around 1872. It was named for Judge George E. Quinan, an Irish immigrant who became a Texas Senator and served on the state Court of Civil Appeals. He…
Hope Lutheran Church · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Hope Lutheran Church in Beasley. Back in the 1910s, a pastor from nearby Needville started holding services for local Lutherans in the Beasley School. By 1918, these folks were organized…
The Town He Tried to Name for the Woman He Married · 9.5 mi
The little railroad town you're rolling through carries one man's love story in its name. Cecil A. Beasley, a Richmond banker born in 1862, laid out this settlement along the rail line in 1894 and first called it Dyer,…
The Depot on the Macaroni Line · 9.5 mi
The tracks running through Beasley have a stranger story than the town they served. They began as part of the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway, a wildly ambitious scheme chartered in 1880 by Italian engineer Joseph…
The Day Beasley Sold Itself at Auction · 9.5 mi
Beasley limped along quietly for over a decade after its founding, then sold itself off in a single dramatic stretch. In 1910 the Stern and Stern Land Company of Kansas City began promoting the town and the surrounding…
The World Comes Here to Get Cooled Down · 9.5 mi
Behind the cotton fields, Beasley hides one of the most specialized engineering plants in the country. Hudson Products Corporation set up manufacturing here in 1973, and the operation grew into what the company calls…
Site of the Home of Elizabeth Powell · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a remarkable Texas home, built before March 21st, 1831. This land was granted to Elizabeth Powell, and her home became a significant landmark during the Texas Revolution. This very spot…
Eight Students and a Schoolhouse · 9.5 mi
Long before Beasley filled out into a trade town, it staked its future on a tiny school. Beasley Elementary opened in 1902 with just eight students, a single small institution for a settlement that was still mostly raw…
Beasley · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Beasley, a town that owes its existence to Cecil A. Beasley and the railroad. He founded this spot in 1894, right along the Texas & New Orleans line. It was first called Dyer, but Beasley renamed…
Lissie United Methodist Church · 9.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Lissie, and right here is the Lissie United Methodist Church. <break time="400ms"/> It started way back in 1906 as the Evangelical Association, with just nineteen members. <break time="400ms"/>…
The Man Who Bought His Own Family's Sausage by Accident · 9.6 mi
When Mark Albright got laid off from his oil-rig job, he cashed in what he had and opened the BBQ Barn in 2016 in his hometown of Beasley, setting up his pits inside a former tire shop along the railroad tracks. He had…
Beasley, TX · 9.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Beasley, Texas, a town that almost had a different name entirely! <break time="400ms"/> It was laid out in the mid-1890s by Cecil A. Beasley, a local banker. <break time="400ms"/> He originally…
Allen, Martin · 9.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site where Martin Allen lived out his days. Born in Kentucky in 1780, Allen was already a surveyor and a veteran of the ill-fated Gutierrez-Magee Expedition into Spanish Texas by 1812. His father…
You Are No Jack Kennedy: The Bentsen Highway · 10.1 mi
U.S. Highway Fifty Nine, from Interstate Forty Five to Interstate Thirty Five, is the Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway, named by the Legislature in nineteen ninety five. Bentsen was born in Mission in nineteen twenty one…
The Airplane That Came Apart Over These Fields · 10.6 mi
On the morning of September eleventh, 1991, Continental Express Flight 2574 was letting down toward Houston with fourteen people aboard when it came apart in the air about seven miles southeast of Eagle Lake. It was an…
Simonton, TX · 11.6 mi · Tsha Handbook
Simonton is at the intersection of Farm roads 1093 and 1489, on the Southern Pacific line fourteen miles northwest of Richmond in northwestern Fort Bend County. The first settlement at Simonton was in the early 1850s,…
The Night China's Leader Wore a Cowboy Hat in Simonton · 11.7 mi
Of all the unlikely places to make diplomatic history, this one ranks near the top. In 1963 an indoor rodeo arena called the Round Up was built out on FM 1093, and on February 2, 1979, it hosted maybe the most famous…
The Polo Capital of Texas · 11.7 mi
As you look around at the wide-open green spaces, you might wonder what they're for. In Simonton, there's a good chance you're looking at a polo field. As Houston grew, polo people went hunting for flat, affordable,…
When the River Came Calling · 11.7 mi
Life in Simonton is lived with an awareness of the Brazos River. In August 2017, during Hurricane Harvey, that awareness turned into a crisis. As Harvey stalled over Southeast Texas, it dumped biblical amounts of rain,…
The Engineering Challenge of the Brazos · 11.7 mi
The recurring floods in Simonton are a dramatic lesson in hydrology. The problem is the Brazos River's very nature in this region. As it crosses the flat Gulf Coastal Plain, the river's gradient, or steepness, decreases…
When Simonton Was the Red-Potato Capital of America · 11.7 mi
Once the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway pushed through in 1888, this little settlement got the one thing a farm town needs to get rich: a way to ship. The payoff came in 1905, when John Spencer and the Mullins…
The Voice Behind 'Drift Away' Started Here · 11.7 mi
You might not expect a soul-music legend to come out of a Brazos-bottom farming crossroads, but Dobie Gray did. He was born in Simonton in 1940, into a farming family in this corner of Fort Bend County, and went on to…
Simonton, TX · 11.7 mi
Simonton's history began in the 1840s when James Simonton and his brother Theophilus purchased 4000 acres of land in northwestern Fort Bend County. They built a cotton plantation on the Brazos River, and the 1850 US…
The Forgiveness That Became 'The Heart of Texas' · 11.7 mi
On April 10, 2000, four-year-old Joy Norwood was struck and killed on a rural road near Simonton after she slipped out of her mother's stopped van and darted into the path of a passing pickup. The driver never realized…
The Brothers Who Named a Bend in the Brazos · 11.7 mi
The crossroads town you're rolling through carries a family name that goes back to the 1850s, when brothers James and Theophilus Simonton came down from North Carolina and settled along a wide bend of the Brazos River…
The 'River Oaks' of the Pure-Bred Cattle Business · 11.7 mi
After the potato money dried up, the land around Simonton found a new kind of blue blood, the four-legged kind. Through the mid-1900s the Simonton-Fulshear-Brookshire corridor became known as the "River Oaks of the…
Living One Mile From the Brazos · 11.7 mi
Simonton sits barely a mile east of the Brazos River, smack inside its 100-year floodplain, and the river has never let the town forget it. Flooding is woven through Simonton's modern story: roughly 100 homes took on…
The Deal That Built the Town · 11.7 mi
The railroad tracks cutting through Simonton aren't just a feature of the landscape; they're the reason there's a town here. James Simonton brought his family from North Carolina in the early 1850s and set up a…
How Disease and a Famous Plant Breeder Killed the Spud · 11.7 mi
Simonton's potato empire didn't fade because the dirt gave out, it fell to biology. The crop that built the town was the red potato, and two forces in plant science finished it off. The first was disease: like potato…
Simonton School · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Simonton, where a schoolhouse once stood that was more than just classrooms. It all started back in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1893</say-as>, when the Simonton Common School District was…
Five Hundred Searchers and a Mesquite Tree · 12.2 mi
After the Sealy exit shooting, the hunt for Mark Frederick's killer turned this rural country south of town into a dragnet. Other troopers found the white Ford abandoned about three miles away, its body pocked with…
Joseph and Rachel Rabb Newman · 12.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Egypt, Texas, a place named for a biblical land, but this area's history is rooted in the Texas frontier. Look around – this land was first granted to Joseph and Rachel Rabb Newman, pioneers who…
Texas Gulf Sulphur Company-Newgulf · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Newgulf, Texas, a company town built by the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company. It all started back in 1909 in Matagorda County, but by 1918, it was officially the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company.…
First East Bernard School · 13.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the first East Bernard School. Built in 1888 a mile north of town, it was moved into Wharton in 1892. By 1895, it was sold again and moved to become a gristmill, blacksmith shop, and…
Why This Spot Got Called Egypt · 13.2 mi
Here is the honest story behind the name on the sign. This little community started out as Mercer's Crossing, named for Eli Mercer, who came to Texas around eighteen twenty-nine and set up a home and a ferry across the…
The Flood That Grew a Civilization · 13.2 mi
Since the name here comes from ancient Egypt, let me tell you the trick that made that faraway Egypt so rich in grain in the first place. It was a flood, and it was the best thing that could happen every year. Every…
Cracking a Lost Language · 13.2 mi
Ancient Egypt left behind walls covered in those beautiful little pictures we call hieroglyphs, and for a very long time nobody alive could read a single one. The knowledge had simply died out. What broke it open was a…
Egypt Wasn't Called Egypt · 13.2 mi
Here is a surprising twist for a town named Egypt. The ancient Egyptians did not actually call their own country Egypt. That name came later, from the Greeks. They said Aegyptos, which most scholars trace back to an old…
Two Point Three Million Stones · 13.2 mi
That road sign for Egypt might get you picturing pyramids, but the town actually earned the name back in the eighteen twenties. During a drought that wrecked the crops, this fertile spot on the Colorado River still had…
Texas Egypt Versus The Nile · 13.2 mi
Let us play a little game of Texas versus the original, because this town truly did borrow its name from the ancient land by the Nile. Start with size. The Egypt over in Africa is a nation of well over one hundred…
The Oldest Corner of the County · 13.2 mi
Do not let the small size fool you. This Egypt is the oldest surviving community in all of Wharton County, and it goes right back to the earliest days of Anglo settlement in Texas, when this was still part of Stephen F.…
Heard, William Jones Elliot, and Egypt Plantation · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Egypt Plantation, named for the rich soil that reminded early settlers of the Nile Valley. This land was first settled by William Jones Elliot Heard, who arrived here in 1832, acquiring…
The City Behind the Gate · 13.3 mi
As you come up on Weston Lakes, you'll notice something unusual for a Texas city: a guardhouse and a gate. This is a place that decided its streets were nobody else's business. The gated core holds about fifteen hundred…
Weston Lakes, TX · 13.3 mi
In 2008, Weston Lakes made history by voting to incorporate as a city. The decision was made on May 10th, with 58.24% of the 977 valid votes cast in favor of incorporation. Voter participation was high, with over 74% of…
From Cattle Ranch to Country Club · 13.3 mi
The spot where you're driving now, perhaps past a pristine green or a still stretch of water, was working land for well over a century. Its roots run back to the 1820s and Stephen F. Austin's colony, to the Fulshear and…
Egypt Plantation Cemetery · 13.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton County, near the tiny town of Egypt. Back in 1838, William Jones Elliot Heard bought over 2,000 acres and started the Egypt Plantation. He set aside three acres right here for a family…
Egypt, Community of · 13.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Egypt, Texas, a town with a name that goes way back. It wasn't named for the pyramids, but for a biblical drought back in 1827. Pioneers from Stephen F. Austin's colony were struggling to find…
Randon & Pennington Grant of 1824 · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Fort Bend County, near Fulshear, where a massive land grant was issued way back on August 3rd, 1824. This 4,428-acre plot on the Brazos River went to David Randon and his partner, Isaac…
Mt. Zion Baptist Church · 13.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Organized as Bethlehem Baptist in 1866 by Joe and Abe Osborne and Louis Thompson, it was reorganized as Mt. Zion in the 1880s. The church experienced destruction…
Glen Flora Plantation · 13.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Glen Flora Plantation, a home built by Mr. Sanford between 1860 and 1866. Fast forward to 1881, and W. H. Hood takes up residence here. Hood was the man who went on to found this very…
Shearith Israel Synagogue · 14.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and right here is the story of Shearith Israel Synagogue. Jewish families started gathering for services around 1899, and by 1913, they had their official charter. They built their first…
Magnet, TX: A Sales Pitch That Fizzled · 14.2 mi
A Texas town called Magnet, and you'd swear it sits on a deposit of magnetite or iron ore, something pulling a compass needle off true. But there's no ore here. The name was a sales pitch. Promoters trying to sell land…
World War II Prisoner of War Camp, Site of · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Camp Wharton, a World War II prisoner of war camp. This land has a long history, originally part of a grant to an Old Three Hundred colonist in 1824, and later owned by Albert Clinton…
Pleasant Hill Cemetery · 14.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Pleasant Hill Cemetery, a place that's been serving this community for over a century. In 1910, two acres of land were deeded to the Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church right here. By 1930, the…
First United Methodist Church of Wharton · 14.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and right here, you're passing the site of the First United Methodist Church. While this building is from 1972, the congregation's roots go way back. They officially organized right here…
Horton Foote's 'Harrison, Texas' · 14.6 mi
As you look at the old brick buildings and quiet streets of downtown Wharton, you're seeing the real-life stage for some of America's most celebrated plays and films. This is 'Harrison, Texas,' the fictional town…
The Hometown of Dan Rather · 14.6 mi
For decades, the steady, authoritative voice of Dan Rather anchored the CBS Evening News, bringing world events into American living rooms. That voice was shaped right here in Wharton. Dan Rather was born in Wharton in…
The 'Pink Palace' Courthouse · 14.6 mi
If you head toward the center of town, you can't miss it: the Wharton County Courthouse. In 1888 the commissioners court hired Houston architect Eugene T. Heiner, and by August 1889 the building was finished, Second…
The Hydrology of a Record Flood · 14.6 mi
Wharton's existence is tied to the Colorado River, and in 2017 that relationship was tested. During Hurricane Harvey, an almost unbelievable amount of rain fell into the river's watershed upstream, and all of that water…
Wharton, TX · 14.6 mi
Wharton wasn't always the quiet town it is today. Before the Whartons even dreamed of settling here, the Karankawa people knew these bottomland forests and fished these waterways, sharing the space with the alligators…
I.A. Victor and the Plaza Theatre · 14.6 mi
On the courthouse square, look for the Plaza Theatre, and know that it started life as a hotel. The Plaza Hotel was built and run by R. B. Huston and his wife, Lula Merriwether Huston, and stood on this lot for decades.…
Frazarville · 14.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Frazarville, a community founded in 1857 by Dr. Isaac James Frazar and his father. They moved here from Bexar County, escaping locusts and Comanche raids. Dr. Frazar's son, James Azariah,…
Glen Flora · 14.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Glen Flora, a town that owes its start to a land grant from Stephen F. Austin himself. But it was C.H. Waterhouse who really put this place on the map around 1890, bringing in German farmers and…
Fulshear Black Cemetery · 14.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Fulshear Black Cemetery, a final resting place with roots stretching back to the days of Churchill Fulshear's plantation. While oral tradition points to earlier burials, the oldest marked grave here…
Taylor, Hobart T., Sr. · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hobart T. Taylor, Sr., entrepreneur, millionaire, and political and civic leader, was born in 1890 in Wharton, Texas, to Millie (Wright) and Jack Taylor. After finishing high school in Wharton in 1913, Hobart furthered…
Fulshear · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Fulshear, a town with roots stretching back to the earliest days of Texas. It all started in 1824 when Churchill Fulshear, one of Stephen F. Austin's original 300 settlers, received a land grant…
Wharton Training School · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the Wharton Training School, a beacon of education for African Americans in Wharton County for nearly eighty years. Established in 1896 as the Wharton Colored School, it grew from a…
Hawes, Judge Edwin, House · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the former home of Judge Edwin Hawes, a key figure in Wharton County's early days. This double-galleried house was built in 1896 by Rosa F. McCamly. The very next year, it was purchased by Edwin…
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church · 14.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and right here is St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church. It all started in the late 1890s, when a German missionary named Ernst August Wenzel began visiting German immigrant families…
Dawson, Charles Washington · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton, and right here is a community that owes a lot to Charles Washington Dawson. For 46 years, he dedicated himself to educating the children of Wharton. Starting as a math and science teacher…
Post West Bernard Station · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton County, not far from Hungerford. Right here, in the summer of 1837, was Post West Bernard Station. It was a vital supply and repair depot for the Republic of Texas military, handing out…
Thatcher, Thomas · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton County, Texas, and right here, in what was then Mississippi, Thomas Thatcher shot and killed his own cousin on Christmas Day, 1835. He did it because his cousin wouldn't hand over a dirk…
Wharton, TX · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton, a town named for two brothers who fought for Texas independence: John and William Wharton. Settled in 1846 by colonists, it quickly became a hub. The first lieutenant governor of Texas,…
Bolton, John Thomas · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton County, the same ground where John Thomas Bolton served as a Confederate assistant surgeon during the Civil War. He enlisted in 1861, serving in Texas and even campaigning in Louisiana.…
Dennis, Isaac N. · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton, Texas, a town that became home to Isaac N. Dennis in 1853. Dennis was a lawyer and planter, but his real claim to fame was his long career in the Texas Legislature. He served in the…
Quinan, George E. · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton County, Texas, and right here is the area where George E. Quinan lived. Born in Ireland in 1819, Quinan came to Texas around 1840. He studied law, became a district attorney, and served as…
Wharton County Junior College · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton, and right here is the site of Wharton County Junior College. Back in 1944, community leaders had a vision for postwar education. By August 7, 1945, a committee was formed, and in 1946,…
Whitten, James D · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Wharton, Texas, a town that played a role in the rebuilding after the Civil War. Right here, in 1866, James D. Whitten, a local farmer and lawyer, was tasked by the county commissioners to find a…
Hamilton, Joseph A., House · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising past the Joseph A. Hamilton House in Wharton. Hamilton, a Union Army veteran from Ohio, settled here after the Civil War and got involved in local politics. He bought this property back in 1885, moving…
St. Paul Lutheran Church · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and right here is the story of St. Paul Lutheran Church. It all started back in 1893 with German settlers near Waterhouse. They loved to worship together, but storms just wouldn't leave…
Snake Creek Cemetery and Church · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Snake Creek Cemetery and Church near Needville. This quiet place holds the stories of early settlers, with names like Hodges, Boon, and Darst etched in stone. Look closely, and you might spot…
First Baptist Church of Wharton · 15.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Wharton, but its story starts even earlier, back in 1822. Imagine, worship services held in the home of William Kincheloe, one of Stephen F. Austin's original…
The Booming Bird Brought Back From Almost Nothing · 15.1 mi
Southwest of Sealy, out toward Eagle Lake, sits the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last big pieces of the native coastal prairie that once stretched across the Gulf Coast. It protects one…
Fulshear, TX · 15.1 mi
Fulshear, out here on the prairie, grew up from the rich soil and the promise of opportunity. It started with folks like Churchill Fulshear, one of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred, claiming land along the Brazos…
Albert and Ethel Herzstein · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past 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,…
Rosenberg, TX · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Rosenberg, a town born from a railroad feud! Back in 1880, the city of Richmond refused to let the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway pass through. So, the railroad built three miles west,…
Banfield, Myra Davis Wilkinson · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fort Bend County, and right here in Rosenberg, a woman named Myra Banfield made her mark. She was the editor of the local newspaper, the Rosenberg Herald, and a community leader. But in 1960, she…
Joerger, F. X. · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Rosenberg, Texas, a town that owes much of its early development to one man: F.X. Joerger. He arrived in 1906 and quickly became a driving force. Joerger established the Rosenberg Abstract…
Scott, Henry · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Rosenberg, but back in 1829, this was the site of Botts Spring, on the Brazos River. That's where farmer Henry Scott, who came from Alabama with a large family, was granted land by the…
Jackson, Andrew Webster · 15.1 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fort Bend County, near Rosenberg. Right here, Andrew Webster Jackson took over as principal of the black high school after his brother's death in 1915. He served for years, and the school was…
Wharton County Abstract Company · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and right here is the story of the Wharton County Abstract Company. It all started back in 1890, founded by attorney William S. Brooks, also known as 'Billie.' He got a helping hand from…
Scouts Watched Santa Anna Cross the Brazos Near Here · 15.2 mi
Before any of this was suburb, the land west of Fulshear toward Simonton and the Brazos belonged to Churchill Fulshear Sr., a French-born mariner and one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, who received…
One Town Took the Railroad. The Other Vanished. · 15.2 mi
The crossroads you're at, where FM 359 meets FM 1093, is downtown Fulshear, and it exists because of a decision made in 1888. Before that, the main local settlement wasn't Fulshear at all. It was nearby Pittsville, a…
The Cemetery a Bulldozer and a Courtroom Could Not Erase · 15.2 mi
Near where FM 1093 meets FM 359 sits the Fulshear Black Cemetery, 3.09 acres that were once part of the Fulshear plantation. Fort Bend County records it as one of several plantation-era Black burial grounds in the area.…
From a Texas Dirt Track to the Epsom Derby · 15.2 mi
Long before Kentucky's Churchill Downs became a household name, there was a Churchill Downs right here in Fulshear. Between roughly 1850 and 1870, Churchill Fulshear Jr. bred and raced horses at a local track he named…
From 100 People to One of America's Fastest-Growing Cities · 15.2 mi
As you come into Fulshear from the east along FM 1093, the master-planned developments give way to the old downtown, and that line marks an astonishing swing in fortune. The early railroad town boomed, supporting 11…
The Christian Pop Star Who Grew Up in Small-Town Fulshear · 15.2 mi
Somewhere along the eastern Fulshear corridor near FM 1093, a kid named Forrest Frank grew up back when this was still small enough to feel a long way from Houston. He'd go on to become one of contemporary Christian…
The Smokehouse That Outlived a Farm Town · 15.2 mi
If you want a meal rooted in the real, old Fulshear rather than the new subdivisions, Dozier's BBQ and Meat Market at 8222 Main Street is the one. Ed Dozier opened the original market and barbecue business right here in…
Engineering a Creek Back to Its Natural Bends · 15.2 mi
Along the Flewellen Creek corridor inside Cross Creek Ranch, you can see a deliberate piece of water engineering hiding in what looks like simple parkland. Years of agriculture, erosion, and drainage work had turned…
Quinan, Judge George E. · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Judge George E. Quinan's law office in Wharton. He wasn't just any lawyer; Quinan was a true Texas pioneer, arriving from Dublin, Ireland, back in the 1830s. By the 1840s, he'd set up…
The Fire That Took the Whole Block in 1910 · 15.2 mi
The historic downtown near FM 359 once burned to the ground in a single stretch. In 1910 a fire destroyed an entire block of Fulshear's businesses, a serious blow for a town of only a few hundred people. What's…
A Brand-New Park for a Suddenly Big City · 15.2 mi
Eagle Landing Park at 4131 Woods Road is one of Fulshear's newest public spaces, opened by the city in November 2025. It isn't historic architecture and it doesn't carry an old story, but that's exactly what makes it…
Fulshear Cemetery · 15.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Fulshear Cemetery, but this place has roots stretching way back to 1824. That's when Churchill Fulshear, Jr., one of Stephen F. Austin's 'Old 300' colonists, acquired this land. By 1851, he donated…
Site of Plaza Hotel and Plaza Theater · 15.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and right here, on the courthouse square, stood the Plaza Hotel and Theater. It started around 1904 as a two-story hotel, owned by R.B. and Lula Huston. It wasn't just rooms; it hosted…
Wharton Hispanic Cemetery · 15.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Wharton Hispanic Cemetery, a final resting place for many of the city's early Hispanic citizens. This land was officially conveyed in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1925</say-as>, but the…
The Frydek 65 · 15.4 mi
Sixty-five young men from this parish went to World War II. Sixty-five came home. Every one of them. If you know anything about how that war went for small farm towns, you know how strange that is -- most communities…
Albert Clinton Horton · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Sycamore Grove, the plantation home of Albert Clinton Horton. Horton was a man of many firsts in early Texas. A Georgia native, he arrived in Texas in 1834 and quickly became involved in…
Master Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez Memorial Highway · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker
Honors Master Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez, US Army Special Forces, Medal of Honor recipient for May 2, 1968 rescue of a 12-man recon team in Cambodia despite 37 wounds. Born and raised in El Campo.
Security Bank and Trust Company · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and right here is the site of the Security Bank and Trust Company. Its story starts back in 1902 with the Wharton National Bank, the city's second-ever bank. That first bank closed in…
Wharton Cemetery · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton, and just a few blocks from here sits the Wharton Cemetery. It was officially established in 1866, but people were already buried here. The oldest marked grave belongs to Barbara Betts,…
Holy Rosary Catholic Parish · 15.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Holy Rosary Catholic Parish in Rosenberg. Land was donated for a church in 1895, with the first wooden church built in 1911. After a fire destroyed it in 1924, a new church was…
The Shootout on the Colorado River Bridge · 15.5 mi
The highway crosses the Colorado River right here, and in the fall of 1932 this bridge put Wharton into the Bonnie and Clyde story. Clyde Barrow had robbed the Piggly Wiggly in town in broad daylight, and the warrant…
Wharton County Courthouse · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Wharton County Courthouse, a building with a dramatic history. Litigation and landowner disputes delayed its construction in the late 1880s, but when it was finished in 1889, it stood as a grand…
Wharton County · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Wharton County, formed way back on April 3rd, 1846. It was carved out of Matagorda and Jackson counties and organized the very same year. The county is named for brothers William H. and John A.…
Williamson, Judge Robert McAlpin, Home · 15.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past where Judge Robert McAlpin's home once stood, a block and a half east of here. The marker you see today was moved to this location in 1976.
Williamson, Robert McAlpin, Site of the Home of · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the home of Robert McAlpin Williamson, a true Texas pioneer. Born in Georgia in 1806, he came to Texas and became the editor of early newspapers like 'The Texas Gazette.' Williamson was…
Rosenberg Cemetery · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Rosenberg Cemetery, which began as the Woodmen of the World Cemetery back in 1905. This eight-acre plot was originally for W.O.W. members and their families. Over time, it absorbed two adjacent…
Briscoe, Dolph, Sr. · 15.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fulshear, Texas, the birthplace of Dolph Briscoe, Sr. He wasn't your typical rancher; he started young, not in college, but out on the range, horse trading and even running a newspaper route to…
Fulshear, Churchill · 15.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fulshear, a town named for Churchill Fulshear. He was a French immigrant who arrived in Texas in 1824, one of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists. He settled here on a large land grant, raising…
Fulshear, TX · 15.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fulshear, a town that owes its very existence to a railroad right-of-way. Back in 1888, Churchill Fulshear, Jr. granted the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway permission to cross his land. This…
Harris, Titus Holliday · 15.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fulshear, Texas, birthplace of Dr. Titus Holliday Harris, a pioneer in neuropsychiatry. Back in 1913, Harris was captain of the Southwestern University football team. The next year, he captained…
Pittsville, TX · 15.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fort Bend County, not far from Fulshear. Right here, the community of Pittsville once thrived. It started as plantation owners sought higher ground away from the Brazos River's floods. The Pitts…
Clayton, Joseph Elward · 15.7 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving past Fulshear, Texas, the birthplace of Joseph Elward Clayton. Born in 1879, Clayton dedicated his life to improving the lives of African Americans. From 1908 to 1923, he served as principal of the…
The Furniture Man and the Overpass · 15.8 mi
The Farm to Market Road Seven Twenty Three overpass in Rosenberg, the bridge that carries traffic over the Union Pacific tracks, is the John M. Arredondo Bridge. John Arredondo was born in Blanco in nineteen fourteen…
Lakeside Sugar Refinery · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of a sugar-making giant! Back in 1898, local leaders like William Dunovant built the Cane Belt Railroad to haul sugarcane to a mill. That railroad did so well, it was bought by the Santa Fe.…
Where Fulshear Still Gathers · 15.8 mi
The Irene Stern Community Center and Park at 6920 Fulshear-Katy Road is one of the civic landmarks that ties the modern city back to its older community life. The road name itself is a clue to how the town connected to…
Wharton · 15.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Wharton, a town with roots stretching back to the earliest days of Texas settlement. Look around – this area was first home to William Kincheloe, one of Stephen F. Austin's original "Old Three…
The High School Band That Sold a Million Records · 15.9 mi
The Triumphs got started in Rosenberg in the fall of 1959, put together by Denver Zatyka, Teddy Mensik and Tim Griffith, all of them Lamar Consolidated High School boys. In December they added a singer named B.J.…
Texas HS Baseball Leaders 2026: Fulshear (Fulshear) · 15.9 mi
Fulshear (Fulshear, TX) placed on the 6A Texas high school baseball stat leaderboards for the 2026 season: Trey Giametta (6 HR); Mark Macklin (3 HR); Braden Schumann (3 HR); Logan Wallace (3 HR).
Pittsville · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what used to be Pittsville, a bustling prairie settlement founded in the 1840s. Named for store owners A.R. and Amanda Pitts, this town became a major commercial hub by 1860. During the Civil War,…
Montgomery-Thatcher Cemetery · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Montgomery-Thatcher Cemetery, a final resting place for families who lived through some of Texas's most turbulent times. James S. Montgomery, a War of 1812 veteran, and George W. Thatcher were…
Teague-Waddell House · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Teague-Waddell House, a beautiful example of Classical Revival architecture built in 1910. Local businessman Norman Teague and his wife Sidney Claire had this two-story home constructed, complete…
First Baptist Church of Rosenberg · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the First Baptist Church of Rosenberg. It all started in 1896 when three Baptist men decided to organize a church here. The first pastor, T. E. Muse, led from 1898 to 1900. Then, disaster struck. The…
The City That Began With Another City Saying No · 16.0 mi
The town outside your window exists because a neighbor turned the railroad down. In the late 1870s the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway wanted a route through Fort Bend County, and Richmond, the established county…
The Day Smoke Rose From Rosenberg's Oldest Block · 16.0 mi
The brick commercial block on the 1900 block of Avenue G is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Rosenberg, put up in 1910 by Jacob Gray. Louis A. Vogelsang leased it for his general merchandise business in 1912,…
The Cowboy History Hollywood Left Out · 16.0 mi
At 1104 Third Street, an ordinary downtown storefront holds one of the region's more important collections of Black cowboy history. The Black Cowboy Museum was founded by Larry Callies, a local cowboy, rodeo rider, and…
The Italian Count and the Macaroni Line · 16.0 mi
In 1881 an Italian count named Joseph Telfener, a railroad promoter, set up the headquarters of the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway right here in Rosenberg. His line pushed toward Victoria and picked up a nickname…
Tower 17 and the Machine That Kept Trains Apart · 16.0 mi
Several major railroad lines still cross in Rosenberg, and a century ago that created a dangerous problem: how do you keep two trains from being routed through the same crossing at the same instant? The answer stands…
Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge · 16.0 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Colorado County, not far from Eagle Lake, and right here is a place dedicated to saving a bird that was almost lost forever. The Attwater's prairie chicken, once a common sight across millions of…
Cole Theatre · 16.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the old Cole Theatre in Rosenberg. Opened in 1919 as the Liberty Theatre by Czech immigrants, it was renamed Cole Theatre in 1935. This place hosted stars like The Ink Spots and John…
Mudtown: The City That Moved Uphill · 16.0 mi
Early Rosenberg had a blunt nickname: Mudtown, earned by unpaved streets and the Brazos River's habit of climbing out of its banks. The original business district stood north of the tracks, around a public square near…

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