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FRIENDSWOOD,
TEXAS
Galveston / Harris
Counties, Texas
Gulf Coast
FM 518 and Hwy 45
20 miles S of Houston
27 miles NW of Galveston
Population: 29,037 (2000) 22,814 (1990)
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History
in a Pecan Shell
The community was founded by English Quakers who relocated from Kansas.
They first moved to the Panhandle
in 1880 (Estacado, Crosby County) but found the Panhandle
a little harsh for an agrarian settlement.
A brief timeline of significant events:
1895: One of the Quakers - Francis Brown – was sent South to locate
land more to the group’s liking.
Brown bought 1,500 acres from J. C. League. After a brief time near
Alvin, a splinter group of the original families bought land for a
new community and named it Friendswood.
1899: a post office was granted
1900: Galveston’s
Great Storm. Trees blown down were milled to build Friendswood
Academy.
1933: The population reaches one hundred.
1958: A Baptist church was organized
1960: Friendswood incorporates.
1968: population reaches 1,675
1980: population reaches 13,585
1982: population reaches 10,719 |
Friendswood
Texas Forum
Subject:
I would bet!
I would be willing to bet that boys today have never heard of "Diamond
Bend" ( A red clay bank of Clear Creek that Gypsum crystals were
found.) As a person that grew up there from 1931 to 1951 there was
not much to do except explore Clear Creek. My mother was telephone
operator there for many years. It was a "live in" telephone office
and us kids had to run the old hand-cranked switchboard at times.
I was reading in the Galveston News of the 4th of July picnics and
parades. And it had been a tradition for 110 years. Funny, I never
saw one in the 20 years I lived there.
The town had 1 grocery store, 1 gas pump, (at the grocery store)
a post office and a fig processing/canning plant owned by Cecil
Brown. The fig plant polluted the ditches to the creek with lye
water used to remove most of the peel from the Magnolia figs, from
there, it polluted Clear Creek. No alcoholic beverages and tobacco
was "roll your own" or snuff. No police department and no fire department.
If you do not know of "Diamond Bend" let me know and I will give
directions, (as I remember it) - Howard Stout, July 05, 2005
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