Name: Liverpool, Texas
Address: Liverpool, TX

Liverpool, TX RoadyGoat

Liverpool might seem like just another blink-and-you'll-miss-it town along Highway 35, but this little spot in Brazoria County holds a few stories worth telling. You can still feel the echoes of its ambitious beginnings; they named it Liverpool hoping it would become a major shipping hub, just like its namesake across the Atlantic. That didn’t quite pan out, especially after those terrible floods early in the last century changed everything. But the spirit of the place endured, rooted deep in the rice fields and cattle ranches that define the local economy.

Liverpool, TX RoadyGoat

Liverpool, Texas, isn't quite what its founders envisioned. They named it after the great port city of England, dreaming of making it a similar hub on the Brazos River. You can almost picture them, back in 1834, seeing those shallow waterways and imagining steamboats piled high with cotton. The slightly higher elevation than some of the coastal areas seemed like a blessing, a safeguard against the Gulf. But the river had other plans. The floods came, again and again, especially in the early 1900s. Those events changed the course of everything. The grand shipping dreams faded, replaced by the steady rhythm of rice farming and cattle ranching. It became a place where the land provided, and people learned to work with it, not against it. Highway 35 runs right through town now, bringing a trickle of visitors headed to Galveston or beyond. Some might stop at the blinking light, maybe grab a bite. But the real draw, the thing that keeps families rooted here for generations, is the quiet. It's the kind of place where Friday night lights shine brightest, where the whole county cares who wins the football game. That quiet, that sense of community, that’s the treasure Liverpool actually holds. And knowing that, you understand why they wouldn't trade it for all the steamboats in the world.

Liverpool, TX RoadyGoat

Liverpool's always been a place where the land dictates the rhythm of life. Rice fields stretch out flat and green, meeting the horizon, and you can still see cattle grazing in pastures not far from town. Folks here know the importance of water – it’s the lifeblood of those fields, but it’s also brought heartbreak. The old-timers still talk about the floods from back in the day, the ones that reshaped the landscape and stunted Liverpool’s growth. So, when Hurricane Harvey stalled over Southeast Texas a few years ago, there was a collective holding of breath. While Galveston and other low-lying areas caught the worst of it, Liverpool, sitting just a bit higher, breathed a sigh of relief. Yet, the storm did something unexpected: it brought everyone together. People opened their homes to those who were flooded out from nearby communities. The high school, usually buzzing with talk of Friday night football, became a makeshift shelter, filled with cots and the aroma of home-cooked meals. It was a reminder that even in a quiet place like Liverpool, the spirit of community runs deep, stronger even than the rising waters. And, in the aftermath, it strengthened the bonds between Liverpool and its neighbors, a connection that continues to this day.

Beard, Andrew Jackson

1831

Andrew Jackson Beard, son of William and Martha (Harris) Beard, was born in Missouri on May 29, 1814. He moved to Liverpool, Texas, with his parents in 1831, and shortly thereafter to Big Creek, where he later bought land from his uncle, Abner Harris , an Old Three Hundred colonist. In the fall of 1835 Beard served the Texas army for several months before receiving an honorable discharge from Stephen F. Austin at a camp near Bexar. In the early spring of 1836 he entered William H. Patton 's Columbia Company, which was attached to the Second Regiment of the revolutionary army . With this unit Beard served as a private at the battle of San Jacinto . Payroll records reveal that A. J. Beard served the Texas Rangers for several months in 1839. In 1842, during the Vásquez-Woll campaign, Beard and his two younger brothers, William H. and Robert Sidney, assisted the Texas militia in repelling the Mexican invaders from San Antonio. Andrew returned home to Fort Bend County, but Robert and William had the misfortune to wind up in the Mier expedition . Even though neither drew a black bean in the Black Bean Episode, both died in Mexican prisons before the Mexican government released the group in 1844. In Fort Bend County in 1847 Andrew Beard married Sarah Jane Pentecost, a daughter of Old Three Hundred colonist George S. Pentecost . In 1850 Andrew and Sarah were living in Seguin, where Beard's father had relocated the family; however, about 1852–53 Andrew returned to Big Creek to farm and raise cattle. He served several terms as overseer of the Big Creek Road District and was the postmaster at Big Creek for several years. He died in office in 1866. Sarah preceded him in death in 1857. Both are buried in the Old Pentecost Graveyard, now known as the Brown-Beard Cemetery, on Cuming's Road near Big Creek. They had six children, and numerous descendants still live in Fort Bend County. Most of Beard's original acreage on what is now Sawmill Road is still in possession of his heirs. In 1974, when the Texas Family Land Heritage program was initiated, the Beard Ranch on Big Creek was included in the first edition of the registry.

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Vicinity of Oyster Creek and Chocolate Bayou

1822

Most early Texas homes and towns were built along streams that provided water for people and livestock, and travel for boats said to be capable of "floating on a heavy dew". Oyster Creek served, 1822-1861, as such a homesite-highway. Its boat landings were piled high with sugar, cotton, cane and other products of some of America's richest plantations. Chocolate Bayou was an area of early-day cattle raising. These were 2 of 50 streams and 10 bays that made this coast a network of useful waterways. (1968)

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Liverpool Post Office

1846

Liverpool, officially founded in 1837, received most of its mail by boat via Galveston or Velasco before the 1840s. Warren D. C. Hall (1788-1867), a leader in the Texas revolution and former secretary of war in the Republic of Texas, became Liverpool's first postmaster in 1846. Three more postmasters served before the office was closed in 1867. There was no post office in Liverpool during the reconstruction period following the Civil War; the closest was at Sandy Point, a community on the Columbia Tap Railroad. Allen Levie became postmaster in 1879, receiving mail three times a week. Thirteen years later, Margaret Wehrly moved the post office to a building away from the Liverpool center. As did many businesses, the office moved closer to the newly erected iron bridge which spanned Chocolate Bayou. From 1892 to 1900, the post office moved several times between the iron bridge and downtown Liverpool. Postal operations were usually housed in the postmaster's residence or business such as the depot, general store, or ferry office. Henry Clement built the first postal building near his home in 1900. In 1908, the new Liverpool town site was laid out on the railroad. Other postmasters, including Louisa Richardson Ackerman Faulkner, who served a term during each of her three marriages, continued to use homes or businesses near downtown until another post office was erected in 1942. With its twenty-third postmaster appointed in 1997, the Liverpool Post Office continues to serve the area. (1998)

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Callihan, Thomas Jefferson

1836

A San Jacinto veteran, born in Illinois, May 10, 1817; died May 21, 1880. His wife Johanne Bishoff Callihan, born in Germany, March 18, 1839; died March 1, 1925.

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Alvin, TX

1872

Alvin is twelve miles southeast of Houston in northeast Brazoria County, on land originally granted to the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railroad. In the 1860s the Santa Fe Railroad established a flag station near the head of Mustang Slough on its Galveston-to-Richmond branch line. Santa Fe hired Alvin Morgan in 1872 to supervise the loading and shipping of cattle at the stock pens. Morgan built the first house in the area in 1879 and persuaded many travelers to settle there. In 1881 the settlement acquired a post office, and the residents named the community Morgan but renamed it Alvin upon learning of another Morgan, Texas. City folklore recalls Morgan's inseparable companions-a dog, a goose, and a white buzzard. Alvin was incorporated in 1891 and again in 1893. By the mid-1890s Alvin had experienced a population explosion, with the number of residents increasing from 100 in 1890 to an estimated 2,000 by 1896. Businesses in the community included an ice factory, a pickle works, a cotton gin, a bank, an opera house, six hotels, four churches, and two weekly newspapers. Alvin's economy was based primarily on farming and fruit growing. Methodists organized the first church in Alvin in 1881, and other denominations soon followed: Baptist in 1886, Presbyterian in 1892, Episcopal in 1896, Nazarene in 1934, and Lutheran in 1938. Alvin's first public school classes met in the Methodist church building, but by the 1890s the school had facilities of its own. In 1910 the community raised funds for a two-story brick schoolhouse. Alvin became an independent school district in 1925. A community college opened at the high school in 1949 but moved to a separate campus in 1963. Alvin had a population reported at 3,087 in 1940 and 3,701 by the mid-1950s. The community's economic growth was based on livestock, poultry, dairying, agriculture, jasmine, oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals. During World War II businessmen persuaded the United States government to place an internment camp in Alvin. About 500 Germans from the camp worked in the local canning factory and rice fields for two years. Between 1960 and 1970 Alvin grew 89 percent, from 5,643 to 10,671. In addition to the public schools and community college, it had several private schools and more than 100 civic organizations. Alvin had 100 acres set aside for parks and recreational facilities in 1980. In 1988 the population stood at 18,484; in 1990 it was 19,220. By 2000 the population was 21,413. Annually, from July through November, the city braces for floods, hurricanes , and tornadoes . The Galveston hurricane of 1900 destroyed or damaged most Alvin businesses and homes. In 1979 tropical storm Claudette dumped forty-three inches of rain near Alvin within twenty-four hours, a state record. Four years later Alicia, generally called the most expensive storm in American history, battered the Alvin area ( see WEATHER ). At least two Alvinites have achieved widespread recognition. Dr. F. R. Winn, an Alvin resident, was nationally praised for his 1898 Cuban Report to Theodore Roosevelt and his eyewitness newspaper report of the battle of Santiago. His distinguished record as medical corpsman in World War I brought international recognition and requests for assistance from foreign governments. Alvin's baseball superstar Nolan Ryan pitched for the New York Mets and California Angels before signing with the Houston Astros ; he finished his career with the Texas Rangers in 1993, having set many major-league records, and was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999.

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Richardson, Stephen

1822

Stephen Richardson, one of Stephen F. Austin 's Old Three Hundred colonists, soldier, and supporter of the Texas Revolution , was born at Mount Desert Island, Maine, on June 1, 1794. He served in the War of 1812 under Col. John E. Wool and later traveled in the South, taught school in Illinois, operated a flatboat plying the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, and sailed in the Gulf of Mexico. On December 22, 1822, he was shipwrecked near the mouth of the Brazos River on the Texas coast. He went inland to San Felipe de Austin, where he established a business with Thomas Davis and enrolled in the Old Three Hundred. He received title to a league of land in what is now Brazoria County on July 10, 1824. In July 1826, in answer to a Mexican plea to relieve famine in Yucatán, Richardson chartered a vessel called the Little Zoe , loaded it with corn and lard, and sailed for Campeche. He was ordered away from Campeche by port authorities and was detained so long at Tampico that his cargo spoiled. In October 1827 he was in Saltillo petitioning the government for redress of his losses, but the matter remained unsettled in June 1828. About that time he married Lucinda Hodge and moved to a spot near Wallis in Austin County; the couple had seven children. In October 1829 Richardson was on a committee to examine the students of Thomas J. Pilgrim 's academy and also served on a committee to formulate plans for a new school building. In December 1829 he was defeated by Thomas Barnett in an alcalde election, and in December 1830 he was defeated by Robert M. Williamson in the race for síndico procurador . In 1832 Richardson moved to Chocolate Bayou in Brazoria County and built a sawmill near the site of present Alvin. The mill washed away in the floods of the summer of 1832, and Richardson moved to the area of present Liverpool, where he built another sawmill. In the fall of 1835 he joined the volunteer army under Francis W. Johnson and took part in the Grass Fight and the siege of Bexar , for which he later received 640 acres, half of which were in Montgomery County. He was secretary of the meeting held at Chocolate Bayou to elect delegates to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. In April 1836 his sawmill at Chocolate Bayou (Brazoria County) furnished lumber for fortifying Galveston Island. In January 1838 Richardson moved to Harrisburg, where he operated a steam sawmill for about ten years. He moved to Houston before March 3, 1849, when, as one of the "Old Texians," he was appointed to a committee to recommend quieting land titles in Texas. He died in Houston on July 6, 1860.

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Liverpool, Texas

Music in Liverpool

Songs About Liverpool

Artists From Liverpool

Rivers & Roads in Song near Liverpool

History of Liverpool

Liverpool, TX RoadyGoat

Liverpool, TX RoadyGoat

Liverpool, TX RoadyGoat

Beard, Andrew Jackson

Vicinity of Oyster Creek and Chocolate Bayou

Liverpool Post Office

Callihan, Thomas Jefferson

Alvin, TX

Richardson, Stephen

Things to Do in Liverpool

Everything Near Liverpool