Booth
Booth, Fort Bend County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Freeman Irby (F.I.) Booth came in 1885 to Richmond, where he met and wed Mildred Ryon Wheat in 1889. They purchased land and built a home here. In the 1890s, Booth brought 30 families from South Carolina to work the land, planting cotton, corn and rice. These families built houses and the Mt. Zion Church, and the settlement grew. By the early 1900s, the town had a post office, sawmill, lumberyard and cane syrup mill, and the Booth Public School operated from 1908 to 1947. The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad served the town; local products included sugar cane and cattle. F.I. Booth died in 1931, and the town's economic focus gradually changed. Its early agricultural foundation is still remembered. (2003)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
F. I. Booth arrived at Richmond in 1885, married Mildred Ryon Wheat, and built a home on land here. In the 1890s he brought thirty families from South Carolina to farm cotton, corn, and rice, and their houses and Mt. Zion Church grew into a town with a post office, sawmill, and cane-syrup mill served by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad. After Booth's death in 1931 the community's economy gradually shifted, but its farming roots are still remembered.
Why it matters
Booth captures how a single landowner, migrant labor, and a railroad could raise a farming town from the Fort Bend County prairie during the cotton era.
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Related people
- · Freeman Irby Booth
- · Mildred Ryon Wheat
Themes & tags
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