Fairchilds

Fairchilds, on Farm Road 361 thirteen miles south of Richmond in southeastern Fort Bend County, is named for early settler Philo Fairchilds, who around 1840 built a home one mile south of the current site of the community. In 1890 Charles Blohm, August Bede, and Theo Aderholz established the initial settlement, which reportedly attracted Germans from other Texas counties. In 1896 a colony of northern Mennonites purchased a league on Big Creek that included the Fairchilds settlement. Fifty families established a community there with a road system, several stores, and separate schools for black and white students. An epidemic of mosquitoes and malaria drove away some of the settlers, and others abandoned the site after the Galveston hurricane of 1900 demolished many of the dwellings. Thereafter, only two or three Mennonite families remained. Fairchilds acquired a post office in 1912, but it closed in 1918. In 1914 the community had a single general store. In 1933 the town reported three businesses and twenty-five inhabitants, and by 1936 Fairchilds had four businesses (one with an adjacent factory), a school, and a number of widely scattered dwellings and farms. In 1940 it reported three businesses and seventy-five citizens, and by 1953, five businesses and a population of 125. In the 1960s the population was 110, and no businesses were recorded. In 1990 Fairchilds reported a population of 150 and had a general store, a feed store, a tire store, and a cafe. The population was 678 in 2000.