Fort Bend County was founded in 1837 and named for a bend in the Brazos River

Stephen F. Austin's settlers arrived in the early 1820s near a deep bend in the Brazos River. They built a two-room cabin called Fort Settlement, also known as Fort Bend. The county took that name when Texas lawmakers created it on December 29, 1837.

Richmond became the county seat on January 13, 1838. The Brazos River was the county's economic lifeline for decades. Steamboats carried cotton and sugar downriver to Galveston and beyond.

The county covers 869 square miles of coastal plain in southeastern Texas. For someone walking Richmond or the courthouse square, the name is literal: this is a county built around a fort at a bend in the river.