Richards

Richards is on Farm roads 1486 and 149 and the Burlington-Rock Island line in east central Grimes County. It was founded in 1907, when the residents of several communities in the vicinity of Lake Creek moved to a newly constructed line of the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway where it crossed the road between Fairview (or Dolph) and Longstreet. The area had been settled by Anglo-American immigrants in the early 1830s, but no community was established until the coming of the railroad. Residents of Fairview and Longstreet led the migration to Richards; some employed log rollers to shift homes and businesses intact to the new townsite. Richards was named by railway officials for W. E. Richards, prominent South Texas banker and organizer of the Valley Route and Townsite Loan Company. Soon after the founding of Richards, the Longstreet post office was transferred there, with Jim Lieb as first postmaster. The Richards State Bank was organized by Green Davis and O. A. Hamilton. The early settlement had a drugstore, a hotel, a barbershop, a shoe shop, several general stores, and a weekly newspaper called the Richards Rustler. The Richards Methodist Church was established in 1914, when a meetinghouse was transported to the community from Fairview. In 1910 Richards had a population of 450, and in 1936 it had a 500 residents and eighteen businesses. After World War II its population declined to an estimated 425 by 1948 and to an estimated 305 by 1969, when it had four businesses. In 1990 Richards had an estimated 296 residents and three businesses. The population remained the same in 2000.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.