FRESNO, TEXAS (Fort Bend County).

Fresno is on Farm Road 521 twenty miles northeast of Richmond in northeastern Fort Bend County. A settler from Fresno, California, reportedly chose the name. The town is on land patented in 1824, once surrounded by cotton plantations. Fresno acquired a post office in 1910. In 1914 it had a telephone connection, a general store, a hardware store, and a population of thirty-two. By 1933 the town had only ten inhabitants and one business. In 1936 it had three rows of dwellings on both sides of a paved highway and was served by the International-Great Northern Railroad. By 1946 the population had risen to 100, a level maintained throughout the 1960s. In 1970 the figure had increased to 120; two years later it had grown to 161. During the 1970s and 1980s the population of Fresno increased more rapidly as the area was affected by growth of Houston. Fresno had a population of 3,182 in 1990 and 6,603 in 2000.


Construction using draught animals and tools

In many countries, ploughs and Fresno Scrapers, pulled by oxen, horses or buffaloes, are used to build terraces.. The Fresno scrapers, however, cannot be used to build terraces less than 3 m wide. In addition, they are not suitable for use in soils which have many rocks exceeding 25 cm in diameter. In general, Fresno Scrapers should not be used when the soils are wet and sticky, and if the cut area of the terrace is very hard or has a lot of grass, it must first be ploughed to allow the scraper to move the soil.


First called Malvern and then Riceton, Fresno was a rice farming community at least by 1900. A rice canal still flows through it today. The town's name was not changed to Fresno until after 1908 and the source of the name was a farm scraper called a fresno as the story is told by some old timers.



 





 









 

 

MALVERN, TEXAS-POSTMASTERS

Allen, Eugene M., 25 Nov 1893

Wood, Wm. G., 18 Jly 1894

Cg'd to ARCOLA, 8 Apr 1897


RICETON, TEXAS-POSTMASTERS

Blunt, Fred P., 16 Jun 1902

Lyons, H. H., 8 Sep 1903 (Failed to qualify)

Hill, Jesse W., 9 Feb 1904

Discontinued 30 Mar 1907; mail to Arcola


FRESNO, TEXAS-POSTMASTERS

Keir, Frank O., 31 May 1910

Welschinger, Phelandie, 30 Oct 1913

Kier, Frank O., 19 Oct 1914

Hanshaw, Cora L., 6 Mar 1917

Renfrow, Clyde B., 19 Sep 1917

Taylor, Harry L., 20 Nov 1923



or

Go to  Home Page