A time for planting :a social history of selected rural communities in Brazos County, Texas

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to show the establishment. The development, the survival and/or decline of selected rural communities of Brazos County, Texas, from their beginning to the present. It is center on the social history of the small farmers who arrived here between 1830 to 1900 to begin a new life. The small farmers came to Texas in search of cheap fertile land and individual freedom. Both goals were achieved. The rural communities in Brazos County were established and developed as a result of the desires of the farmers to create a better environment for their families. In order for the rural communities to exist, there had to be a community-wide attitude of friendship. When the community residents could rely on the neighbors for assistance, it was a sure thing that the community was not going to collapse because of lack of people. Practically all research in this study was done through personal interviews with the people of these rural communities. Some correspondence was done between the writer and the former residents who moved away. There were secondary sources of supply needed background materials for reasons of the farmers’ migration into Texas and to describe certain events connected with the people of the rural communities which occurred in books, bulletins, and newspaper articles. This study revealed that the Brazos Country rural communities were similar to other rural communities in most of the United States, particularly in the people’s desire for land and individual freedom. Yet the rural communities existed on the close relationship attitude expressed by these small farmers for their fellow residents. In the conclusion of this study, the social history of the small farmers has explained their way of life in the last rural frontier of Brazos County. This way of life was clearly pictured as the path of endurance, patience, and simplicitiy.