Fulshear ( ) is a city in northwestern Fort Bend County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States, and is located on the western edge of the metropolitan area. The population was 16,856 as of the 2020 census, and according to 2023 census estimates, the city is estimated to have a population of 43,317.

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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

. The small agricultural community traces its origins to the arrival of Churchill Fulshear, one of Stephen F. Austin's original Old Three Hundred. 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 Austins was a department store in the Diamond area of Derry in Northern Ireland. The store was established in 1830 and, until 2016, remained standing as the world's oldest independent department store. The building measures and is five stories ...

. He established a

slave plantation A slave plantation is an agricultural farm that uses 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 (); ...

and flour mill which flourished well into the late 1880s. During the

Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...

, 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 pursued

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent 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 indi ...

'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 and military engagement in the Texas Revolution. Following a siege of the Alamo, 13-day siege, Mexico, Mexican troops under president of Mexico, President Antonio L� ...

. 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 20th century

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 in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States that hosts the annual Kentucky Derby. It opened in 1875 and was named for Samuel Churchill, whose family was prominent in Kentucky for many years. The first ...

, which is in Kentucky) that he operated during the 1850s to 1870s in Pittsville, 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 located in downtown Fulshear succinctly summarizes its 19th Century history:

American Civil War, slavery and sharecropping

While few historical records exist on the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

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 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 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, 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 has 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 and was 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 List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. ''Circa'' 2008, the community had approximately 700 residents. In October 2013, the population rose to 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, 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''. ...

''. 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 (29.6899563, -95.8996757), 60 miles inland from the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. 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 transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

at Brookshire is to the north. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is 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 external ...

(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 census, there were 16,856 people, 4,990 households, and 4,482 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 5,353 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 59.5%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 6.4%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.2% Native American, 13.6% Asian, 0.0%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 4.8% from some other races and 15.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 19.7% of the population. 32.6% of residents were under the age of 18, 4.1% were under 5 years of age, and 8.9% were 65 and older. 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 Fort Bend County, Fulshear's is among the lowest. Mayor Don McCoy was elected mayor in 2024 and has also served as President of the Fulshear Regional Chamber of Commerce since its inception in 2013. Fort Bend County does not have a hospital district. OakBend Medical Center serves as the county's charity hospital 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 simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...

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 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 served by 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 al ...

(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. In 2022, the district was given a grade of "A" by the Texas Education Agency. The distr ...

(KISD).

LCISD portion

* The LCISD portion is served by (all in Fulshear): **Huggins Elementary School – The elementary school is named after John Huggins 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 – 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.
File:Lamar CISD Fulshear High School.jpg, Fulshear High School 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 The British International School of Houston (BISH), formerly the British School of Houston (BSOH), is a non-sectarian, co-educational college preparatory day school in the Greater Katy region of the Greater Houston, Houston area. BISH, which open ...

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 offers a range of postsecondary educational prog ...

while the Katy ISD portion is zoned to

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

Transportation

Airports near Fulshear, located in unincorporated Fort Bend County, include Cardiff Brothers Airport 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. Initially named Houston Intercontinental Airport upon its opening in 1969, it was renamed in ho ...

and William P. Hobby Airport, both of which are in Houston.

Arts and culture

In 2011, the Fulshear Art Council (FAC), a non-profit

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

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