Kendleton (Powell Point)
Fort Bend County, TX
Status: Located
Year Established: 1866; 1904
Council of Governments: H-GAC
Public History: Powell Point is a small rural community on Farm Road 2919 two miles northwest of Kendleton in western Fort Bend County. In the 1890s the Powell Point School, so named because of its location on the Elizabeth Powell land grant, was moved from Kendleton to a nearby black settlement, which then adopted the school’s name. The school, a church, and several houses marked the Powell Point community on county highway maps in the 1930s. The school eventually became part of the Kendleton Independent School District. As late as the early 1990s, maps of the area showed a school, a church, and a cemetery at the site.
Kendleton is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 and Farm Road 2919, fourteen miles southwest of Rosenberg in western Fort Bend County. It was once the site of a plantation belonging to William E. Kendall. In the 1860s Kendall divided the plantation into small farms, which he sold to former slaves. The community that resulted became known as Kendleton. In 1882 the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway Company laid track between Rosenberg and Victoria, passing through Kendleton. A post office was established in 1884 with Benjamin F. Williams as postmaster. In 1890 Kendleton had a general store and twenty-five residents; by 1896 it had grown to include three general stores and a Methodist and a Baptist church, which served some 2,000 people in the surrounding rural area. The census of 1900 reported 116 residents in the town itself. The Kendleton schools also served a wider population than Kendleton proper. In 1903 the community had two schools for twelve White students and three schools for 202 Black students. The population of Kendleton fell to thirty-six in 1933 but rose again to 100 by the late 1940s. It fluctuated between 150 and 200 in the 1960s and early 1970s but, after voters chose to incorporate Kendleton in 1973, rose to more than 600. In 1990 Kendleton reported 496 residents. Locals estimated that there were around 2,200 people in the town and the surrounding area, however the 2000 census still reported a population of 466.
Community History: “Images were all submitted to us through the Storyteller Portal.
From FindAGrave for Newman Chapel Cemetery (Old Kendleton) Cemetery description:
“”Newman Chapel was the first Methodist Church organized in the Kendleton area. Parishioners began meeting by the San Bernard River under the oak trees in about 1872. Services were held there at the river until 1874 when the parishioners constructed a log cabin. Chapel members were buried at what is now known as Old Kendleton Cemetery. The current location of Newman Chapel United Methodist Church is a new multipurpose worship center at 16 Lum Rd, Kendleton, TX 77451 (Cross Streets: Between Hp Johnson St and TX-541-Loop).””
From FindAGrave memorial for Benjamin Franklin Williams:
“”Legislator and Clergyman. Benjamin Franklin Williams (1819–1886) was born a slave in Brunswick County, VA and he was brought to Colorado County TX (by way of Tennessee) in 1859. After emancipation Williams became a traveling Methodist minister. He was the officiating minister at the Wesley Methodist Chapel in Austin when it was established in 1865. As early as 1868, he was vice president of the Loyal Union League. He won a seat at the Constitutional Convention of 1868–69 during Reconstruction. But he refused to sign the constitution. He actually withdrew from the convention before it adjourned because of its failure to place a more rigid suffrage clause in the constitution. He was elected to the Twelfth Legislature (1871), to the Sixteenth Legislature (1879); and to the Nineteenth Legislature (1885). Williams was one of the few Black legislators who expressed an open concern for laborers, both agricultural and skilled. After leaving public office, Williams continued in his role as an evangelist but also became a land speculator. Williams, along with other Blacks, was instrumental in the settlement and development of Kendleton, Texas. Williams married Caroline William and they had one son Thomas.””
From the Storyteller Portal Survey:
“”This area is one of many Settlements that my family & I have had. I have very little memories about the people, places, or events I attended during the 1980’s while living there, but I do have some great memories that will never leave me. I attended Powell Point Elementary school & lived on McFarlane. We had one neighbor on the long dark gravel dirt roads. There was a so much vegetation abound and I climbed them all, swam in the ditches, picked pomegranates & berries, Oh and the beautiful selection flowers that grew! Oh the memories I have of my old friends in Kendleton!”””
Cemetery: Newman Chapel (Old Kendleton) Cemetery, Kendleton Cemetery (Paradise Cemetery)
Church: Newman Chapel United Methodist Church (1866), Oak Hill Baptist Church (1876), Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church (1883), Kendleton Baptist Church
School: Powell Point School; Kendleton School