POW CA M P I N ROS ENBERG
44
POW CAMP
IN ROSENBERG WRITTEN BY SHARON WALLINGFORD
A World War was raging overseas so why would Fort Bend county be in distress? It was the 1940s and the area was mostly rural land that ranked high in the production of cotton, rice and cattle in the state. Electricity had yet to make its debut to most farm houses and barns, but water was abundant via windmills, cisterns and creek beds.
streamlined the daily news into homes; televisions were not yet common in households. The projectors at the Cole and State Theatres on Third Street flashed short reels on the war zones in black and white, along with the scheduled cartoons and hot Hollywood flicks.
Life During the War
Family and farm supplies had to be obtained in town or by mail order from Sears and Roebuck catalogs. The largest number of citizens (nearly 3,500) resided in Rosenberg. The city limits encompassed a radius north to the Brazos River, east along Old Richmond Road near the county fairgrounds and Fairview Courts and Café, south on SH 36 to City Hall Drive and Luksa Grocery near Southgate, and west to Fred Blasé’s City Service station and café (Tuckers) located above the intersection of SH36 and 90A.
By 1943, Fort Bend County had shrunk drastically in agricultural production and was experiencing lock down under a war that was consuming its men and separating the families who met at the kitchen table every night for a fresh out-of-the-garden supper prepared at the kitchen stove. The evening meal was often followed by a session on the front porch consisting of self-told stories and songs strummed and sung to relax and cool down after a hard day of labor. A radio, usually situated in the living room,
Third Street served as the center of town. It was commonplace for the store fronts to support local activities. Local men, photographed in uniform, would hold shoppers attention for the length of the war. The
