Texas Historical Marker #13583
Friends Church Cemetery. In 1895, six families left the disbanded Quaker settlement of Estacado in the Lubbock area and moved to Galveston County. Here, they established the community of Friendswood, named in honor of their faith and association with the Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers. By November 1895, the settlers needed a burial ground when a falling tree killed young Newton Knode while he cut firewood with his father-in-law. His grave is the earliest marked burial at what became Friends Church Cemetery, adjacent to the Friends church and school building on property owned by community founders T.H. Lewis and F.J. Brown. A church appointed committee has cared for the cemetery throughout its history, arranging for maintenance and establishing criteria for burial. The cemetery was open to all community residents for several decades, but when the town's population boomed in the late 20th century, new restrictions then required church membership or early town residency to qualify for burial. The cemetery today is a link to the early community and its religious founding. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2006 #13583
502 S Friendswood Dr, Friendswood, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #00259
Cecil and Frances Brown House. Designed by Houston architect Henry A. Stubee and built in 1938, this was the home of local civic, church, and business leader Cecil Brown and his wife Frances. Both were from pioneer Quaker families. Mr. Brown was prominent in the Gulf Coast fig industry (1920s-1950s) and is credited with much of Friendswood's development. For many years after its construction, this French eclectic style house was the first and only brick residence in the Friendswood area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1997 #259
312 Friendswood Dr., Friendswood, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #07455
Friendswood. This community was founded in 1895 by a group of Friends (Quakers) led by F. J. Brown and t. H. Lewis. They acquired the land from J. C. League and named the settlement Friendswood. From the very beginning, church and school were central to the life of this community. In 1900 an academy building was built on this site, with lumber from huge pine trees felled by the 1900 hurricane. The Friends Church, which until 1958 was the only church in the community, used the academy building for both worship and education. In the early years it provided the only secondary educational facilities for the surrounding area. The last school term was held in 1938, but the building continued to be used for worship until 1949 when it was replaced by a more modern structure. The heritage of this community, received from its founders, is based on Christ's words, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." John 15.14 #7455
502 S. Friendswood Dr. (FM 518), Friendswood, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #07437
Fig Industry in Friendswood. Friendswood was established as a Quaker colony by Frank J. Brown and Thomas H. Lewis in 1895. Among the colony's early settlers was former Kansas farmer Nereus Stout. Stout became a highly acclaimed horticulturist and is believed to be the first farmer to grow figs commercially in Galveston County. J. C. Carpenter established Galveston County's first fig preserving plant in Friendswood about 1910. His main supplier was the Stout farm, but in time his inventory of fig suppliers expanded as figs became a popular and reliable cash crop. By the early 1920s Galveston County accounted for half of all the figs grown in a 7-county area along Texas' Gulf Coast. In 1930 one-third of the county's leading figs producers were from Friendswood, a community of fewer than 300 residents. Friendswood's two fig preserving plants supported a network of nurserymen and orchardists, and provided employment for many of Friendswood's residents, including the years during the 1930s Great Depression. Fig production along the Texas Gulf Coast declined after World War II; Friendswood's fig orchards began disappearing in the 1950s. A commercial fig preserving plant in Friendswood, the last of its kind still in operation on the Texas Gulf Coast, closed in 1968. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995 #7437
?, Friendswood, TX, United States