Trone-Ray-Lane House

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, out on the Fort Bend County road. The Trone-Ray-Lane House. That name alone carries a century of living, and we're just getting started.

This piece of ground goes back further than the house itself, all the way back to 1824, when it was part of a land grant belonging to Henry Scott, one of Stephen F. Austin's original "Old 300" colonists. Let that sink in.

The soil under this house was deeded when Texas was still a province of Mexico and the whole enterprise of settlement was just finding its legs. Now, jump forward to 1909. A rancher and banker named Earl R.

Trone is getting married. And his wife's parents, who had come down from Indiana, decided their daughter deserved something lasting. They had a house built as a wedding gift, and they were not playing around.

Pine and cypress for the framing and walls, and a granite foundation underneath it all, because they understood exactly what Gulf Coast weather could bring. Hurricanes. Floods.

They built that house to take a punch. In 1925, the property changed hands. Taylor and Mattie N.

Ray bought the house, and Taylor Ray turned out to be a man the community leaned on hard. He served on the first Rosenberg Board of Aldermen, and later he became mayor. And then there was the school board, where he served as president for twenty-four years.

Twenty-four years. That is not a term of office, that is a commitment. The house stayed in the Ray family, and eventually it passed to Ray descendants, the Lanes, who restored it in 1964.

A land grant from 1824, a wedding gift from 1909, and a family line that just keeps holding on. In Fort Bend County, some things are built to last, and they mean it.

What the marker says

This house is located on the 1824 land grant of one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists, Henry Scott. It was built as a wedding gift in 1909 for rancher-banker Earl R. Trone and his wife. Her parents from Indiana had it constructed of pine and cypress with a granite foundation to withstand hurricanes and floods. In 1925 Taylor and Mattie N. ray bought the house. Taylor Ray served on the first Rosenberg Board of Aldermen and later as mayor. For 24 years he was president of the Rosenberg School Board. The house is now owned by Ray descendants, the Lanes. Incise in base: Restored in 1964 by the family of Milton Ray Lane