Posted on Aug 30, 2014 in
FEATURES
Nellie Hilmers, great-granddaughter of William Stafford, and Vernon Eschenfelder, Stafford Fire Marshal at the 1993 dedication of the monument in the William J. Stafford cemetery.
THE MAKING OF FORT BEND
By Jonathan Fausset –
In my efforts to research the history of Stafford, I placed a phone call to the Stafford City Hall. The woman who answered my inquiry directed me to Sadie Williams. She assured me that Williams was quite knowledgeable about Stafford’s history and gave me her phone number. She was correct. Williams was excited to talk history with me and told me the interesting things about Stafford – the history left out of the usual books – but not the book she co-authored about the history of Stafford with Jean Court. As the “unofficial” historian of Stafford, Williams told me the types of stories that show Stafford as a community, rather than just a dot on a map.
We begin with a little bit of chronicled history. In 1830, William Stafford built a cane mill and a cotton gin that were credited as the first ones built on Steven F. Austin’s colony. On the march to Harrisburg, General Santa Ana and his army made a stop at Stafford’s plantation and had a feast on Stafford’s corn, sheep and hogs, and upon departure, Santa Ana ordered that the plantation be burned to the ground. After Texas won its independence from Mexico, Stafford returned to his home and rebuilt his plantation. He lived there until his death in 1840 and was buried on his property, where his body remains to this day. William Stafford’s family and descendants have always supported the City of Stafford. Upon his death, they donated his gun to be displayed at the Stafford City Hall.
Sadie Williams and Jean Court.
Stafford is the only city in Texas that has a municipal school district, Stafford Municipal School District (SMSD). It looks very different on paper than any other school district in the state. SMSD was set up 32 years ago after a Fort Bend ISD school board meeting, when a few parents who were uncomfortable sending their kids walking across the railroad tracks and four lanes of Highway 90 to get to school, got involved. This followed a school board budget cut that sent busses outside a two-mile radius to pick up kids. When the parents told the school board they weren’t happy with this as it endangered their children, someone on the school board said if they didn’t like it, they could start their own school district. That is exactly what they did, and the SMSD was born. Williams worked for the school district as the secretary for Stafford Middle School from its inception in 1982 until she retired in 2004.
A.J. Falsone, Manuel Rudy, A.K. Jacobs and E.C. Laperouse with Postmaster T.G. Bonano, seated, business leaders involved in the War effort. June 27, 1944.
Stafford was built in alignment with the railroad tracks. E.C. Laperouse was the local pharmacist in Stafford and very responsible to the community, making himself available to those who needed him. Around 1943, his son, Charles, who went to school in Sugar Land, was told by his father that if he wanted to keep going to school in Sugar Land, he was going to have to move out there or find transportation. Charles talked to the dingy engineer about needing a ride to go to school from Stafford to Sugar Land, and the engineer obliged his request. The dingy was the train that ran back and forth across the track in front of the sugar factory along Highway 90. Charles finished his schooling and stayed in Stafford to run the family business, Lap’s Drug Store. He later served with the Volunteer Fire Department.
Stafford prides itself in having no property taxes. It attracts many businesses and has four times the amount of people working in Stafford as it has residents. Texas Instruments had a production facility in Stafford, but as of 2012, the facility has been closed. Texas Instruments relocated near Telfair in Sugar Land, near the intersection of Highway 59 and University Boulevard. The number of small businesses in Stafford keeps the economy afloat. Stafford may be a small town, but it has many opportunities.
