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History of Orchard
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City of Orchard
9714 Kibler St.
Orchard, TX 77464
Map and Directions
(979) 478-6893
(888) 216-8503 fax
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 The
City of Orchard, Texas
Orchard is at the
intersection of Farm Road 1489 and State Highway 36, on the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe line thirteen miles west of
Richmond in western Fort Bend County. In 1880 the Gulf,
Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built through what was to
become the townsite. The community was promoted in 1890 by
S. K. Cross, who sold tracts from his ranch to German,
Bohemian, and Polish settlers.
The Orchard
community, named for early and unsuccessful attempts to
raise fruit in the area, was granted a post office in 1893.
In 1894 twelve families from Akron, Ohio, settled in
Orchard. By 1896 the one-teacher Orchard school had
forty-three pupils, and the town's estimated 250 residents
were served by a Methodist church and a general store. From
the 1920s through the early 1970s Orchard reported a
population of 200. During the 1920s the community had three
general stores, a telegraph office, a drugstore, a community
dance hall, a cotton gin, and a gas station.
By 1940 the town
consisted of a school, a church, and four businesses.
Several school districts consolidated with Orchard in 1948
to form the Orchard consolidated school district. The
Orchard community began to grow somewhat in the 1970s and
reported a population of 408 in 1982 and 373 in 1990. |