Waller County this month is celebrating its sesquicentennial—its 150^th birthday— with festivities scheduled throughout the county. Even Katy, a part of which is in Waller County, will host local festivities this week.

But leave it to Pattison to leave its own, unique mark on things. Actually, many unique marks.

The Pattison community held a branding party May 1 at the Pattison United Methodist Church, 3711 Ave. H in Pattison. There, a group led by Kurt Klausmeyer—he’s been branding cattle for 35 years—heated up branding irons from area ranches. They made their mark, so to speak, on some boards that are expected to hang in a new Waller County Courthouse now being planned in Hempstead.

Many brands have historical ties to the area. One longtime area rancher, Danny Lang, Jr., traced his family’s Texas ties to July, 1824, when Stephen F. Austin brought the first Anglo settlers to Texas, then a part of Mexico. They settled in San Felipe, which is about nine miles west of Pattison on FM 1458. His family ranch brand, the bar 7C (7C, with a bar above it), is on the branding board. The C is for Cooper and the seven, Lang said, was for his grandfather having seven grandchildren.

Lang said his family’s ties to the area were such that the City of Brookshire might have been named Cooper had there not already been a post office named Cooper. But Brookshire got its name from Nathen Brookshire, who was part of Austin’s fifth colony in 1835, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

Brands can be changed as times change and new generations take over ranching operations. One rancher, Tom Paben, who lives and works near Monaville, pointed to a group of brands that his family has used over the years. The one his family uses now, he said, has his initials, TLP.

Paben’s family has been around awhile. He said his son, Wesley, is a sixth-generation rancher on his mother’s side of the family. They’ve been working the land since the 1850s. His father’s side of the family is a relative newcomer to the area, he said, coming in 1925 from Nebraska to Texas. Right now, he said, the cattle business in Waller County is doing pretty well.

Paben’s wife, Dianne, said brands are registered every 10 years with the county clerk in those counties where the cattle are raised. If, for example, a cattle ranch had operations in Waller and Fort Bend counties, it would register its brand in just those two counties.

The brands, and the memories that come with it, come at a time when the area is facing encroaching development. Much of the land is being sold to developers. But some of the land is also being bought by the Coastal Prairie Conservancy, formerly the Katy Prairie Conservancy. The Pabens’ land is right across the street from a subdivision, Paben said.

Dianne Paben said there were so many subdivisions going in now, she estimated that within the next 30-40 years there won’t be any farmland left in the area.