City of Ferris

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back in 1851, before Ferris was anything more than open Texas land, the Ephriam Andrews family set down roots here, and they brought company. Their in-laws, the McKnights, came right along with them, the whole outfit settling in on a purchased land grant.

Now that's how you stake a claim: family in tow, papers in hand. They weren't alone for long either. The Duffs, the Greens, the McDaniels, the Orrs; pioneers all; they came too, and together these families started building something out of nothing.

Seven years into it, 1858, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was founded. You plant a church, you're not just passin' through. These folks meant to stay.

Now here's where the story takes a turn. By 1874, the Andrews family, same family that had been here since the very beginning, deeded over a hundred acres as a townsite. And they named it for Judge J.W.

Ferris, who lived from 1823 to 1899. That hundred-acre deed went to the Houston and Texas Central Railway, and just like that, a place on the map became a town with a name. That same year, 1874, the post office opened.

June 22nd, to be precise. Right inside the store of the first postmaster, a man named Jackson J. Straw.

The railway comes through, the mail starts movin', and the dominoes just keep fallin'. First cotton gin rolled in 1880. First newspaper pressed ink in 1889.

The Ferris Institute opened its doors in 1892 and operated all the way through 1907; fifteen years of education out here on the Texas plain. And then there's the thing Ferris never gave up. Since 1895, this city has been a brick-making center.

Not a flash in the pan, not a brief season of industry; a center, and it's held that distinction ever since. So the next time you roll past Ferris, consider this: one family's 1851 land grant eventually gave a hundred acres to a railroad, a judge got his name on the map, a postmaster opened up shop on a June afternoon, and the ground itself turned out to be worth building with. Some places earn their story one decade at a time.

What the marker says

Sire was occupied in 1851 by the Ephriam Andrews family and their in-laws, the McKnights, settling a purchased land grant. The Duffs, Greens, McDaniels, and Orrs also pioneered here. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was founded in 1858. The Andrews family (1874) deeded 100-acre townsite, named for Judge J.W. Ferris (1823-99), to the Houston & Texas Central Railway. Post office opened June 22, 1874, in store of the first Postmaster, Jackson J. Straw. First cotton gin opened in 1880; first newspaper in 1889. The Ferris Institute was operated 1892-1907. City has been a brick-making center since 1895.