Pattison Was a Road, Rail, and Cotton-Gin Town

Pattison can look like a small bend in southern Waller County, but the crossing is older than it looks. James Tarrant Pattison bought land there in 1839. He built his house on a hill. His plantation sat where the Atascosito Road met the San Felipe Trail. Around it were a stage stop, gin, gristmill, sawmill, and racetrack.

Rail changed the community again. Three of Pattison's children gave the Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railroad a right-of-way and land for a turntable and townsite. The town organized in 1877, and rail traffic began in August 1878. Pine Grove, an earlier supply point around Edwin Waller's store and post office, moved toward the terminus. Cotton rode the railroad toward Houston.

The railroad stopped running in 1899, and Brookshire replaced Pattison as southern Waller County's distribution center. The 1900 Galveston hurricane destroyed Pattison's school, Methodist church, and many businesses; a downtown fire that year pushed more businesses to move. Farming helped the community rebuild. Waller County's last operating cotton gin, at Pattison, closed in 1976.