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Friendswood: The Struggle for the Promised Land
Friendswood, Texas, lies nearly halfway between Houston and Galveston, a growing community of over 30,000. Many areas are still beautifully wooded. Friendswood's school system is respected, and its high school football team feared. The city has become a prosperous satellite city of Houston. However, these things did not just happen; the path in history that led to Friendswood was uphill all the way.
Friendswood was founded as a Quaker colony, so some background on the Quakers is relevant. Known to themselves as the Society of Friends, "The Quakers differ from most other Christian groups in their refusal to take oaths, their testimony against war, their lack of professional ministry, and their recognition of women's ministry" ("Society" 2339). "The fundamental belief of Quakerism is that Divine revelation is immediate and individual; any person may perceive the word of God in his soul, and every Friend must heed it" ("Friends" 3505). The Friends' founder, George Fox, called this revelation the "Inner Light," which he began to preach about around the world in 1647. "Quaker" was a derogatory term for a Friend, used in mockery of the emotion in their meetings. "The Quakers were subject to violent persecution in England [where the group originated] until the Toleration Act of 1689" ("Society" 2339). A number of Quakers tried to make a life in America, but were persecuted there as in the rest of the world. This changed when William Penn founded Pennsylvania ("Society" 2339).
Frank J. Brown is credited with being the founder of Friendswood. He was the tenth child of Ham and Eliza Brown, and was born in Randolph, Indiana on July 17, 1850. According to his daughter, Edith Brown McGinnis, Frank Brown's "thrill of adventure and wanderlust" was born when he overheard his parents planning a move to Iowa. Because of his adventurism, as well as a poor relationship with his father, he set out west. Among other things, he was a successful buffalo hunter and Indian fighter (Promised Land 7, 10, 18, 44).
"In the pioneer settlements in the states by Quakers, Texas seems to have been overlooked. We know of no meeting or settlement, until the one started by Paris Cox in 1879" (McGinnis, First Quakers 5). This settlement, Estacado, in the Texas Panhandle was the direct predecessor to Friendswood. In fact, it was the one of only three Quaker colonies ever established in Texas, the other being View Point in Lipscomb County (Stephens 1). Cox, a buffalo hunter like Brown, started his colony with several other Quaker families. However, after a severe winter, all the others packed up and left the Cox family alone. Paris Cox worked hard to prove the area was habitable, growing "corn, oats, millet, sorghum, melons, potatoes and garden vegetables." He then persuaded about ten or twelve families to come and join him (McGinnis, First Quakers 5). They made homes in sod-houses and dug-outs, and dug irrigation wells. They "were the first to plant and harvest crops" in the area, "where just a few short years before buffalo and Indians had been unmolested in their possession" (McGinnis, Promised Land 73). At first the small colony was called Maryetta after Paris Cox's wife, but the name was changed to Estacado after they discovered there was already a Maryetta in Texas (McGinnis, First Quakers 6). After a nearly disastrous trip to California, Frank J. Brown's family arrived in Estacado, which was at its peak (McGinnis, Promised Land 75-77). Dr. J.W. Hunt, a resident, called Estacado "the center of culture and religion in a territory embracing about one-fifth of Texas. From 1881 to 1893 all roads led to the village in the northern portion of Crosby County" (qu. in McGinnis, First Quakers 10). "In Estacado a great friendship had sprung up between the Lewis and Brown families" (McGinnis, Promised Land 85).
Shortly after Frank J. Brown's conversion some years earlier, he felt a divine calling to establish a Quaker colony. His daughter wrote, "Like Abraham of old he was to be called out to a land which he did not know to build a name for God." This thought permeated his life, entering even into his nights' dreams (Promised Land 71).
Several explanations have been given for the breaking-up of Estacado, Texas. Dr. J.W. Hunt cited drought, crop failure, a legal controversy which left some people "without valid title to their homes," and limited educational and evangelical opportunities (qu. in McGinnis, First Quakers 10-11). Bud Stephens later said it was because "the Crosby County seat was moved, the railroad bypassed Estacado, and non-Quakers moved in" (1). McGinnis argued that "in reality the [Estacado] church never broke up; but was picked up bodily and moved to South Texas," because, she wrote, "they had fulfilled their purpose. They had led the way in agriculture and had taken religion and education to the South Plains" (McGinnis, Promised Land 85).
Frank J. Brown shared his dream of a "Promised Land" with the others in Estacado (McGinnis, Promised Land 84), and he was sent "out to locate to a colony" (Kleiner 4). He first visited Halstead, Texas, and Newton, Kansas. "Alistus Lewis and his son-in-law, M.M. Cox, had come to South Texas from Estacado a few months before. They began sending T.H. and Frank [Lewis] literature, got out by Stockwell, telling of the wonderful warm climate and the strawberry country around Alvin" (McGinnis, Promised Land 88). A "scouting party," consisting of Frank J. Brown, Alistus Lewis, T.H. Lewis, and their families took the train to Alvin, Texas (Baker 10).
Alvin was, of course, a small town. Nearby Galveston, however, was a different story. "Galveston was in its heyday in the 1890s. It was one of the nation's leading ports and the outlet to the world's oceans for the vast area between the Mississippi river and the Rocky Mountains and was connected to the nation's interior by a network of railroads" (Young 3). The island had first been settled in 1817, when the pirate Jean Lafitte built his headquarters called Campeachy. From there, "Jean ruled his assortment of picaroons and the trulls they consorted with when ashore" (Myers 10). Later, "with Lafitte out of business, the territory became more attractive to would-be settlers" (Kenyon 5). An important seaport developed. Trailblazer Josiah Gregg said Galveston was "destined to be the New York of Texas" (qu. in Fornell 5).
The scouting party "got to Alvin February 15, 1895, just after the biggest snow storm in the history of the Gulf Coast Country. They were expecting to see orange blossoms and strawberries; instead the snow was piled two and three feet deep over everything" (McGinnis, Promised Land 88). Having little or no cash, they were forced to stay wherever they were allowed, including under stage pavilions (Baker 10-11). Frank J. Brown did have a "carload of buggies," which he "traded and sold as occasion demanded" (McGinnis, Promised Land 103). Thus, he was able to rent a little farmland near Alvin (McGinnis, Promised Land 90; Kleiner 5). Alvin had a pickle factory, so Brown "planted several acres of cucumbers as well as garden and feed crops." However, heavy rains came, and the crops were destroyed (McGinnis, Promised Land 90). Besides dissatisfaction with the land, the scouting party "disapproved of [some of Alvin's] local customs (which included dancing) […]" (Kleiner 5). They did not wish to live in Galveston because "some were Spiritualists, and met to hear and see the table rappings." The Browns and Lewises wanted their "children in a better Christian influence." They decided that their "settlement must be well drained" (McGinnis, Promised Land 91-92).
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Works Cited
City of Friendswood Online
Map of Friendswood
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