Needville

Needville is at the intersection of Farm roads 1236 and 360 and State Highway 36, fourteen miles south of Richmond in southern Fort Bend County. The community was established about 1891 by August Schendel, who built a home, a store, and a cotton gin on the high prairie and called it Schendelville. When he applied for a post office in 1894, he changed the name to Needmore for a joke, since the place needed more of everything. Since that name was already in use, the post office department changed the name to Needville. A school had opened by 1897, and in 1898 Schendel platted a town and began selling lots. In 1903 Needville had a one-teacher white school with ninety-seven pupils and a one-teacher black school with forty-five pupils. By 1910 the Round Hall had been built for dances and social activities; it served as a social center until 1950. By 1914 Needville consisted of three general stores, two cotton gins, a movie theater, and a population of 100. Telephone service was in place in 1916. In 1918 the Needville State Bank opened, and that same year the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway built through the community. The early Needville economy was based on stock raising and farming, but during the 1920s and 1930s oil, natural gas, and sulfur were discovered in the area. By the 1920s Needville reported some 500 inhabitants. At that time the town included twelve general stores, four churches, four gins, and an electric light plant, which was sold to the Houston Lighting and Power Company in 1926. In 1929 natural gas was piped into town. From 1927 to 1931 the Needville County Fair served the entire county; the fair was subsequently discontinued because of debt and the Great Depression