DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Teas Nursery Company in Harris County. Now settle in, because this one starts in a back yard in Indiana — and it doesn't stop growing for over a hundred years. In 1843, a young man named John C.
Teas began selling apples out of his back yard in Indiana. Born in 1827, he had no way of knowing that a simple back-yard apple operation would one day branch — if you'll pardon the expression — into something that would plant over a million trees across the Houston area. John Teas moved the business to Missouri in 1868, and from there he grew into a nationally prominent horticulturist.
Now, that's a word that carries weight. It means he wasn't just selling produce anymore. He was shaping the living landscape of a nation.
Then came 1908, and the story takes a turn that only Texas could provide. John's son, Edward Teas, Sr. — born in 1870, a horticulturist himself — found himself in conversation with a developer named W. W.
Baldwin. Baldwin had plans. Big ones.
He was mapping out a community called Westmoreland Farms and a town called Bellaire, out in southwest Harris County. And he needed someone who understood trees and shrubs and the patient art of making a place beautiful. He hired Edward Teas to execute the planting designs for Bellaire Boulevard and the adjacent streets.
Edward started work in Bellaire early in 1909. The very next year, he moved his family all the way from Missouri to this site and opened Teas Nursery Company. They started out specializing in fruit trees, flowering shrubs, and plants — the kind of inventory that makes a neighborhood feel like it was always meant to be there.
But the business kept expanding, stretching into landscaping services. And the projects that came their way were no small affair. The landscaping of Rice Institute — now Rice University.
The River Oaks subdivision. These were the bones of what Houston would become, and Teas Nursery had a hand in covering them with green. By 1951, the company had planted over one million trees in the Houston area.
One million. You don't arrive at a number like that without decades of early mornings and dirt under your fingernails. And 1951 was also the year Edward Teas, Sr. died — born in 1870, gone in 1951, leaving the nursery to his descendants.
The roots, you might say, had gone deep enough to hold.
What the marker says
Teas Nursery Company traces its history to 1843, when John C. Teas (1827-1907) began selling apples out of his back yard in Indiana. After moving the business to Missouri in 1868, Teas became a nationally prominent horticulturist. In 1908 his son, horticulturist Edward Teas, Sr. (1870-1951), met developer W. W. Baldwin who was then planning the community of Westmoreland Farms and the town of Bellaire in southwest Harris County. Baldwin hired Teas to execute the planting designs for Bellaire Boulevard and adjacent streets. Teas started work in Bellaire early in 1909. The next year, he moved his family from Missouri to this site and opened Teas Nursery Company. Initially specializing in the sale of fruit trees and flowering shrubs and plants, the business was later expanded to include landscaping services. The company's early projects included the landscaping of Rice Institute (now Rice University) and the River Oaks subdivision. By 1951 Teas Nursery had planted over one million trees in the Houston area. Edward Teas died the same year, leaving ownership of the nursery to his descendants. (1993)