The Mesquite Belt Railroad Town: Brookshire, Texas
The Mesquite Belt Railroad Town: Brookshire, Texas
MKT 200 Westbound June 1976 croosing FM 2855
Photo copyrighted by & used with permission of Gary Morris
Brookshire is on U.S. Highway 90 and Interstate 10
in southern Waller County thirty miles west of Houston. The town is named for
Capt. Nathen Brookshire, who received title to a league of land as a member of Stephen F.
Austin's fifth colony in 1835. Many skeptics thought that the area, which was
surrounded by coastal prairies, was unfit for settlement. Detractors were surprised
when because of the rich alluvial soil of the Brazos riverbottom and the arrival of the Missouri,
Kansas and Texas Railroad.
Brookshire developed into a thriving agricultural community. The railroad and
Brookshire's proximity to Houston made the town an ideal shipping point for crops such as cotton,
melons, corn, and pecans. By 1893 a post office had been established at the community.
With agriculture as its basis, the economy of Brookshire flourished. By 1897 the
Brookshire Times noted that the town had some thirty businesses and had shipped 10,000 bales of
cotton that year. Although cotton remained king in Brookshire in 1900, the crop's
economic significance diminished over the next three decades because of falling cotton prices
and the demand for farm labor in the lucrative war industries. The community's economy,
however, was not devastated, as rice became a major cash crop that increased in production every
decade after 1900. Brookshire's population was 1,250 in 1920, then fluctuated over the
next two decades, then steadily increased through the 1980s. In 1980 Brookshire, with
a population of 2,244, was a center for rice, peanut, soybean, and cattle production.
The town had a number of churches, a sizable consolidated school district, two banks, and several
large businesses, including the IGLOO Corporation's production plant for recreational coolers.
The Waller County Museum, in the home of former resident Dr. Paul Donigan, is located in
Brookshire. Each October the town is host to the Waller County Festival, which celebrates diverse
ethnic backgrounds. In 1990 the community's population was 2,922.
Information
from The Handbook of Texas Online; a joint project of The General Libraries at
the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association.
The Handbook of Texas Online
