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RICHMOND,
TEXASFort Bend
County Seat, Gulf
Coast
Highway 59 and U.S. 90
15 miles SW of Houston
Population 16,920 (1990)
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Former
Fort Bend County jail in Richmond. More Texas
Jails
TE photo, 2001 |
Richmond Landmark ArchitectureThe
Fort Bend County Courthouse >
(1908) Nearly
identical to the Hays Co. courthouse in San Marcos - built the year before. Both
were by C.H. Page and Brothers, architects. Ft. Benders bought the kit that included
clock faces... moreThe
Ft. Bend County Jail c. 1896: Just southwest of downtown Richmond - across the
tracks. John
Moore Home, c. 1883
Long-Smith Cottage
Confederate Museum
Fort Bend Historical Museum: 500 Houston Street |
| Railroad
bridge over the Brazos. TE photo, 2001 |
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History
in a Pecan Shell
Deaf Smith, Mirabeau B. Lamar and Jane Long were once Richmond residents.
Jane Long is buried in the cemetery and there is a statue of Lamar directly in
front of the courthouse.
A
time line of Richmond history:
1822: First settlers arrived, closely followed by members of Austin's "Old 300"
The settlement was named after a log fortification on a bend of the Brazos River
- the location was an important ford on the river.
1836: Evacuated during
"The
Runaway Scrape"
1837: The town is platted, promoted and named after Richmond,
England. Incorporated in May of 1837 and becoming county seat when Fort Bend County
was organized later in the year.
1839: First newspaper - the Richmond Telescope
and Texas Literary Register, was published
1842: First courthouse built
1853: Yellow Fever epidemic hits Richmond
1855: The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos
and Colorado Railroad arrives
1866: Freedman's Bureau opens when enamcipated
slaves leave plantations and move to the city
1867: Union occupation troops
stationed at Richmond
1871: New Courthouse
1878: The Gulf, Colorado and
Santa Fe RR bypasses Richmond by 3 miles - giving birth to Rosenburg, Texas
1888: First bridge across the Brazos is built
1893: First steel bridge is
built
1899: Brazos floods
1908: Fourth
County Courthouse
1920s: Population is 1,273. Oil discoveries add to the
economy - rice, sugar and cotton are main crops
After WWII,
the more mobile population moved to Houston
for better jobs. The population was stagnant until people started commuting from
Houston in the 1970s.
Book
Your Hotel Here & Save
Richmond/Rosenberg
Hotels |
Richmond History Articles Jaybird-Woodpecker
War by Archie P. McDonald
("All Things Historical" Column)
"In Fort Bend County, a silhouette of the jaybird symbolized the Redeemer
portion of the Democratic Party and the woodpecker represented those who had flourished
during Radical Republican reconstruction, who also had begun to call themselves
Democrats by the 1880s." |
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Photo courtesy Teri
Brown, 2004 | |
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