Fulshear ( ) is a city in northwest

Fort Bend County Fort Bend County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. The county was founded in 1837 and organized the next year. It is named for a blockhouse at a bend of the Brazos River. The community developed around the fort in early days. Th ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States, and is located on the western edge of the metropolitan area. The population was 16,856 as of the 2020 census.

History

Before Texas Independence

The history of Fulshear is closely intertwined with the historical events leading up to Texas Independence and eventual statehood within the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. The small agricultural community traces its origins to the arrival of Churchill Fulshear, one of

Stephen F. Austin Stephen Fuller Austin (November 3, 1793 – December 27, 1836) was an American-born empresario. Known as the "Father of Texas" and the founder of Anglo Texas,Hatch (1999), p. 43. he led the second and, ultimately, the successful colonization ...

's original

Old Three Hundred The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was head of a household, or, in some cases, a partnership of married men. Austin was an American approved in 18 ...

. He moved from Tennessee to Texas in the summer of 1824 with his wife, Betsy Summers, daughter, Mary, and three sons, Benjamin, Graves, an
Churchill Fulshear, Jr
As a man with considerable wealth and property, Churchill Fulshear Sr. obtained on July 16, 1824, a land grant from the Mexican government and Stephen F. Austin that allowed him and his family to settle in

Austin's colony The "Old Three Hundred" were 297 grantees who purchased 307 parcels of land from Stephen Fuller Austin in Mexican Texas. Each grantee was head of a household, or, in some cases, a partnership of married men. Austin was an American approved in 1 ...

. He established a

slave plantation A slave plantation was an agricultural farm that used enslaved people for labour. The practice was abolished in most places during the 19th century. Slavery Planters embraced the use of slaves mainly because indentured labor became expensive ...

that raised cotton, corn, rice, pecans and livestock. Churchill Fulshear Sr. died on January 18, 1831, with the plantation ownership passed onto his youngest son, Churchill Fulshear, Jr., who added a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

and flour mill which flourished well into the late 1880s. During the Texas Revolution, Churchill Jr. and his two brothers, Graves and Benjamin, served as scouts for the Texan army as the Mexican army under the command of

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

pursued

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

's army and civilians who fled after Santa Anna's victory at the 1836

Battle of the Alamo The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna reclaimed the Alamo Mission near San Ant ...

. The Fulshear area was on the route of both the Mexicans and the Texan soldiers. Churchill and his brothers scouted Santa Anna's army as they crossed the Brazos River near their plantation on April 14, 1836. According to one account, the Texan army trying to prevent Santa Anna and the Mexican army from crossing the Brazos River camped on the Fulshear plantation. They retreated when they learned that:

1,500 Mexican soldiers had crossed nearby at Thompson's Ferry, they, too, had to retreat. Randolph Foster was one of the Old 300 settlers whose plantation was in the John Foster grant that lay between what is now FM 359 and FM 723 just south of Fulshear. He was a member of Martin's Company and, from William Harris Wharton's account, we ascertain that the Company "camped on the night of the 11th at Churchill Fulshear's." Churchill Fulshear's plantation lay on the north side of the Brazos River in what is now Fulshear township.

Texas Independence to the early 1900s

In the years after Texas Independence, Churchill Jr. expanded the plantation and commercial interests. This included a horse race track called "Churchill Downs" (not the same as the present-day

Churchill Downs Churchill Downs is a horse racing complex located on Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, famed for hosting the annual Kentucky Derby. It officially opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was ...

, which is in Kentucky) that he operated during the 1850s to 1870s in

Pittsville, Texas Pittsville is an unincorporated area that formerly held a distinct community in Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. The site is along Farm to Market Road 359 near Hunt Road and is nineteen miles northwest of Richmond, Texas and three miles no ...

, located several miles north of Fulsher. One of the most famous horses bred by Churchill Jr. was "Get-A-Way" (known as "Old Get"), which raced on numerous tracks throughout the United States and Europe. He also actively sold and purchased real estate, including the 654 acres sold to John Randon on May 10, 1844, for $4,000. The old tombstones in the Fulshear Cemetery (previously called Union Chapel Cemetery Grounds) identify the names of some of the original pioneers who settled the Fulshear area: Andrews, Avery, Avis, Bains, Bond, Boone, Brasell, Bulwinkel, Cooper, Davis, Dozier, Edmonson, Everett, Gibson, Foster, Harris, Holmes, Hoskins, Huggins, Hunter, Jager, Kemp, Lovelace, Mayes, McElwee, McJunkin, McLeod, Miller, Nesbitt, Parker, Patton, Quinn, Rowles, Sass, Shieve, Sheriff, Simonton, Sparks, Thompson, Utley, Wade, Walker, Wilson, Wimberly, and Winner.

Mention must be made of several men who made outstanding contributions to the Fulshear community and who are buried in this cemetery. They are: (l) Randolph Foster - an "Old 300" Settler of the area, (2) Rev. John Patton - the first Methodist Minister connected to Union Chappel, and (3) Dr. Robert Locke Harris - a Confederate War Surgeon who visited after the War in 1865 and remained to become a prominent doctor of the area.

A significant historical development occurred in 1888 when Churchill Jr. granted the San Antonio and Aransas Pass (SA & AP) Railroad (SA&AP) the right of way through his plantation. The town of Fulshear grew around the railroad in the 1890s, a period that also saw the demise of other local communities which, like Pittsville, had rejected the SA & AP Railroad the right of way on their lands. Churchill Fulshear Jr. died in 1892. In the same year, the Southern Pacific Railroad gained ownership of the SA & AP Railroad. In the decades following, the town established a public school district (1893), a Methodist church (1894) and business establishments that included a barber shop, doctor, drug store, blacksmith, saloon, hotel, and post office. A

Texas Historical Marker The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas. The commission also identifies Recorded Texas Historic La ...

located in downtown Fulshear succinctly summarizes its 19th Century history:

Civil War, slavery and sharecropping

While few historical records exist on the Civil War and the people of Fulshear, there are accounts that local landowners, surgeons, and commercial business men actively supported and enrolled in the Confederate Army during the US Civil War. Two of the three active Fulshear cemeteries provide insights into the history of the non-white racial minorities. As was common practice prior to the US Civil War, plantation owners like Churchill Fulshear would build separate cemeteries based on race. In addition to farm labor, "Churchill Fulshear's slaves were put to work making the bricks for the Fulshear plantation mansion, called Lake Hill." Since the mid-1800s, minority families were buried either in the Fulshear Black Cemetery or the Fulshear Spanish Cemetery, which were originally part of the Fulshear family plantation. This includes many of the black sharecroppers who worked the land after the end of slavery in the United States. A Texas Historical Marker here gives the historical information of the Black Cemetery: After the abolition of slavery with defeat of the Confederacy, many of the emancipated slaves became

sharecroppers Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...

, which meant they rented land to farm it. Many grew cotton and potatoes, and supplemented their livelihood by raising chickens, eggs, and pigs as well as helping other farmers pick beans, potatoes, and peanuts. Many of these sharecroppers are buried in the Fulshear Black Cemetery. In 1995, Fulshear Mayo
Viola Randle
won a class-action lawsuit to legally define the Fulshear Black Cemetery as belonging to the Fulshear Black Cemetery Association and to prevent an attempt by a local property owner to restrict more burials in the cemetery. The Spanish Cemetery, which was often referred to as the "Catholic Cemetery," is just south of the Fulshear Cemetery and an estimated 300 grave sites. Like elsewhere in Texas and the American South, the schools segregated based on race. The original "white-only" school house was built in 1893 that was later expanded into a two-story building in 1912. The segregated school for Mexican students was located nearby. Two "black-only" school houses were built in rural areas several miles to the south and northwest of town. These Fulshear schools were merged into the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District in 1948.

Boom and bust, 1900s–1970s

By 1898 a thriving population of 250 residents supported eleven stores, three saloons, a school and a hotel. A block of businesses was destroyed by a fire in 1910 but the town recovered quickly and soon downtown consisted of several general stores, a drug store, a doctor's office, a post office, a millinery shop, three churches, an undertaker's supply store, a depot, a grist mill, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, a barber shop, six saloons, four schools, a boarding house, a hotel and a local telephone system. On Saturdays, when the local hands were paid, Fulshear was so busy that residents complained that the sidewalks were too crowded to walk on. The town had 300 residents and ten stores in 1929. But the population fell to 100 in 1933, around the time that the Fulshear plantation house was torn down. The Depression and a changed lifestyle caused residents to leave Fulshear. Fulshear did her share toward the war effort during WWII. Not only did she contribute men and women for the armed forces and war industries but an airplane lookout station was also manned daily on the roof of one of the brick buildings.

Fulshear remained a rural agricultural town with population ranging from 300 to 700 into the 1970s.

Incorporated city, 1977–present

The city was incorporated in 1977.City Demographics
" City of Fulshear. Retrieved on November 6, 2011. The town served as a marketing center for locally produced rice, cotton, soybeans, corn, poultry, sorghum, pecan, horses and cattle. Growth in Fulshear exploded in the 2000s due to its proximity to

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. Around 2008 the community had around 700 residents. In October 2013 the population went over 5,000. By that time, traffic was commonplace while historically it had not been.Mulvaney, Erin.
Fulshear growing pains hit ballot
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. November 3, 2013. Retrieved on April 7, 2014. In May 2017, Fulshear was listed the richest small town in Texas on MSN.com.

Geography

Fulshear is located in northwestern Fort Bend County at (29.690824, –95.890531), 60 miles inland from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. It is located at the intersection of FM 359 and FM 1093. Downtown Houston is to the east, and Wallis is to the west.

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

at Brookshire is to the north. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 0.79%, are covered by water. Fulshear has an

extraterritorial jurisdiction Extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) is the legal ability of a government to exercise authority beyond its normal boundaries. Any authority can claim ETJ over any external territory they wish. However, for the claim to be effective in the externa ...

(ETJ) of . Of the general-law cities in Texas, Fulshear has one of the largest ETJs. Sediments deposited over time by the Brazos River have created rich soil, enabling many native trees to grow in the area, including oak, cottonwood, ash, and pecan. The growing season is very long (296 days) thanks to the county's geographical proximity to the Gulf Coast, and temperatures are mild year-round. April, October and November are the most pleasant months in Fulshear; July and August are the least comfortable.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 16,856 people, 3,588 households, and 3,392 families residing in the city.

2017

Fulshear, TX is home to a population of 6.2k people, from which 90.8% are citizens. As of 2017, 16.6% of Fulshear, TX residents were born outside of the country (1.03k people). The ethnic composition of the population of Fulshear, TX is composed of 3.87k White Alone residents (62.5%), 940 Hispanic or Latino residents (15.2%), 733 Asian Alone residents (11.8%), 350 Black or African American Alone residents (5.64%), 288 Two or More Races residents (4.64%), 15 Some Other Race Alone residents (0.242%), 3 American Indian & Alaska Native Alone residents (0.0484%), and 0 Native Hawaiian & Other Pacific Islander Alone residents (0%). In 2017, the most common birthplace for the foreign-born residents of Texas was Mexico, the natal country of 2,547,886 Texas residents, followed by India with 231,271 and El Salvador with 200,904. The median household income in Fulshear, TX is $174,194. Males in Fulshear, TX have an average income that is 1.41 times higher than the average income of females, which is $45,959. The income inequality in Fulshear, TX (measured using the Gini index) is 0.482, which is higher than the national average. From 2016 to 2017, employment in Fulshear, TX grew at a rate of 35.6%, from 1.99k employees to 2.7k employees. The most common job groups, by number of people living in Fulshear, TX, are Management Occupations (675 people), Sales & Related Occupations (356 people), and Business & Financial Operations Occupations (243 people). File:Fulshear TX FMs 359 and 1093.JPG, View south on FM 359 toward signal at FM 1093 File:Fulshear TX Wildflowers.jpg, Wildflowers on Winner-Foster Road south of Fulshear

Government and infrastructure

Fulshear is incorporated as a general law city. As of 2015 the taxation rate is 0.161631% per $100 valuation. Of the taxation rates in

, Fulshear's is among the lowest. Mayor Aaron Groff was elected mayor in 2018 after serving two years as a member of the Fulshear Development Corporation, the city's Type B Economic Development Sales Tax Corporation. Fort Bend County does not have a

hospital district Hospital is a district of the San José canton, in the San José province of Costa Rica. It is one of the four administrative units that form San José downtown properly. The district houses, along with Merced district, the main commercial ac ...

. OakBend Medical Center serves as the county's

charity hospital Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

which the county contracts with.

Postal service

The

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

operates the Fulshear Post Office at 8055 Farm to Market Road 359 South.

Public libraries

Fulshear's Bob Lutts Fulshear/Simonton Branch Library is a part of the

Fort Bend County Libraries Fort Bend County Libraries is a public library system serving the county of Fort Bend, Texas. The main library, the George Memorial Library, is located in Richmond, Texas. History Prior to the founding of the Fort Bend County Library there exis ...

system. The branch, which opened in May 1998, was the third branch built with 1989 bond funds. The land currently occupied by the library was previously the Fort Bend County Precinct 4 headquarters. Bob Lutts, the precinct commissioner, offered the land to the library system. The Fulshear City Council asked the county to name the library after Lutts. The library is now within Precinct 3. File:Fulshear TX City Hall.jpg, Fulshear City Hall on FM 1093 File:Fulshear TX Fire Dept.jpg, Fire Station No. 1 on 5th Street File:Fulshear TX Lutts Library.jpg, Bob Lutts Library on FM 359 File:Fulshear TX Post Office.JPG, US Post Office on FM 359 in Fulshear

Education

Public schools

Fulshear is zoned in separate portions to schools in the

Lamar Consolidated Independent School District Lamar Consolidated Independent School District, also Lamar Consolidated ISD, Lamar CISD or LCISD, is a public school district in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Metropolitan Area. Lamar CISD includes almos ...

(LCISD) and the

Katy Independent School District The Katy Independent School District (KISD) is a public school district based in Katy, Texas, United States with an enrollment of over 85,700 students. As of August 2009, the district was rated as "Recognized" by the Texas Education Agency. ...

(KISD).

LCISD portion

* The LCISD portion is served by (all in Fulshear): **Huggins Elementary School – The elementary school is named after

John Huggins John Jerome Huggins Jr. (February 11, 1945 – January 17, 1969) was an American activist. He was the leader in the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party who was killed by black nationalist US Organization members at the University o ...

who won world fame by training the first horse to win the English Derby. **Leaman Junior High School – The junior high school is named after Dean Leaman, the owner of Allied Concrete. **

Fulshear High School Churchill Fulshear, Jr. High School is a senior high school in the LCISD Education Center in Fulshear, Texas, and in the Houston metropolitan area. The school, which serves the LCISD portion of Fulshear, Weston Lakes, and Simonton, is a part o ...

– The high school is named after the city founder, Churchill Fulshear Jr The LCISD portion was formerly zoned to

John and Randolph Foster High School John and Randolph Foster High School is a secondary school located in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, north of Rosenberg. The school is part of the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District. It opened in 2001, with t ...

.
File:Lamar CISD Fulshear High School.jpg,

Churchill Fulshear High School Churchill Fulshear, Jr. High School is a senior high school in the LCISD Education Center in Fulshear, Texas, and in the Houston metropolitan area. The school, which serves the LCISD portion of Fulshear, Weston Lakes, Texas, Weston Lakes, and Sim ...

File:Lamar CISD Leaman Jr High School.jpg, Dean Leaman Junior High School File:Lamar CISD Huggins Elem School.jpg, Huggins Elementary School

Katy ISD portion

The KISD portion is served by: * James Randolph Elementary (Fulshear) * Campbell Elementary * Adams Junior High School * Jordan High School

Private schools

the British International School of Houston in Greater Katy has a school bus service to Fulshear.

Colleges and universities

The LCISD portion is zoned to

Wharton County Junior College Wharton County Junior College (WCJC) is a public community college with its main campus in Wharton, Texas. The college also has campuses in Richmond, Sugar Land, and Bay City. WCJC is accredited by the Southern Association of College ...

while the Katy ISD portion is zoned to

Houston Community College Houston Community College (HCC), also known as Houston Community College System (HCCS) is a public community college system that operates community colleges in Houston, Missouri City, Greater Katy, and Stafford in Texas. It is notable for active ...

Transportation

Airports near Fulshear, located in unincorporated Fort Bend County, include

Westheimer Air Park Westheimer Air Park was a privately owned, public-use airport in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. The airport was west of the central business district of Houston. It was located along Farm to Market Road 1093 east of Ful ...

Cardiff Brothers Airport Cardiff Brothers Airport was an airport located in unincorporated area, unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, east of the city of Fulshear, Texas, Fulshear and south of the city of Katy, Texas, Katy. The ...

, and Dewberry Heliport. Area airports with commercial airline service include

George Bush Intercontinental Airport George Bush Intercontinental Airport is an international airport in Houston, Texas, United States, serving the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Located about north of Downtown Houston between Interstate 45 and Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 ...

and

William P. Hobby Airport William P. Hobby Airport (colloquially referred to as Hobby Airport, Houston Hobby, or simply Hobby) is an international airport in Houston, Texas, located from downtown Houston. Hobby is Houston's oldest commercial airport, and was its primar ...

, both of which are in Houston.

Arts and culture

In 2011, the Fulshear Art Council (FAC), a non-profit 501c3 organization, was created to encourage and support the arts and arts education in Fulshear and the surrounding areas. The council began showcasing local artists and their artwork at events hosted in downtown Fulshear. These showcases now occur the first Tuesday of the month and are referred to as Arts and Drafts events. FAC changed its name to Arts Fulshear in 2012, and the organization began providing art and theater classes to local youth. In 2013, Arts Fulshear added adult art classes, and it began hosting the annual Fulshear Art Walk. In 2020, the Fulshear Historical Association (FHA), a non-profit 501c3 organization, was formed to preserve and share the history and heritage of Fulshear, Texas.Fulshear Historical Association
It continues this work today by encouraging community collaboration through public opportunities for historical documentation and learning.

Documentaries

The documentary ''The Heart of Texas'' was filmed partly in Fulshear.

References

External links

* * {{authority control Cities in Texas Cities in Fort Bend County, Texas Greater Houston