A Stroll Through Yesterday's Fulshear: The Enduring Memories of Constance Ann Harris Seger

        Constance Ann Harris Seger ©Fort Bend County Historical Commission

Note: This blog is based on the oral history interviews with Constance Ann Harris Seger in 2013 by Roberta Terrell of the Fort Bend Historical Commission.

Step back in time to a Fulshear defined not by toll roads and sprawling developments, but by dusty lanes, country stores, and the simple rhythm of farm life. In a heartfelt 2013 oral history interview with the Fort Bend County Historical Commission, Constance Ann Harris Seger paints a vivid picture of the Fulshear of her childhood and the deep family roots that tie her to this historic corner of Texas.

Born in Paris, Texas, in 1943, Seger spent her formative years in the bustling city of New Orleans. For her and her siblings, visiting their paternal grandparents in Fulshear was a cherished escape to a different world. Their grandparents, Hunter Pinkney Harris and Willie Amilee McKithan, lived in a white house with a red brick chimney that occupied an entire city block, bordered by Wilson, Second, Syms, and Third Streets. Today, the house still stands, though now with a stucco exterior.

This block was a child’s paradise. Behind the main house stood a chicken coop where her grandmother would get chickens for dinner, a small storage house where she and her friends quilted, and a vegetable garden. The rest of the property was a pasture for a small herd of sheep, complete with a barn in the middle.

“The sheep used to go in the barn, and we called it the doo-doo barn, because of the sheep doo-doo in there,” Seger recalled with a laugh. “We’d go up in the hayloft and we’d swing out through the door on a rope and drop down on hay bales... We played in there for hours.”

Their adventures extended beyond the property line to what they called the “old dusty road,” where they would wander into the prairie to catch horned toads—a creature she says she hasn’t seen since childhood.

The family’s roots ran even deeper at the Harris farm, a sprawling 4,000-acre property along FM 1093 that backed up to the Brazos River. This land, where they grew cotton and corn and ran 200-300 head of cattle, is now home to the Weston Lakes and Fulbrook communities.

Life was lived off the land. Her grandmother raised chickens for food and tended a large garden. The family sheared their own sheep, sending the wool off to be made into dark green and red blankets with satin bindings. Each Christmas in New Orleans, Seger’s family would receive a quilt or a pair of these blankets, along with a huge burlap bag of pecans harvested from the trees her grandfather had planted.

A trip into town might mean a visit to her grandfather’s dry goods store, a classic shop with wooden plank floors and glass cases that Seger likens to the one from “Little House on the Prairie”. As children, they’d get candy from the jars and simply say, “Charge it to my grandma”.

Seger’s connection to the area begins with her great-grandfather, Dr. Robert Locke Harris. He arrived in Texas from North Carolina in 1853 at the age of 13, traveling with the Simonton family, who were cousins to the founders of nearby Simonton, Texas. He drove a wagon on the journey, carrying a precious painting of himself and his two older sisters, a family heirloom that now hangs in Seger’s home.

Dr. Harris became a doctor, served in the Civil War, and was a revered community figure who would go on to have twelve children, four of whom also became doctors. This tradition of medicine continued with Seger’s own father, Dr. Hunter Harris, Jr., a psychiatrist who served in the Medical Corps during World War II. Though her father initially wanted to be a farmer, he was encouraged to make his own way. His legacy of service continues through The Harris School, a therapeutic school named in his honor.

One of the most dramatic stories passed down through the family is their survival of the devastating 1900 Galveston hurricane. In August of that year, after baby Sally Bright Harris died of malaria, the family fled the mosquito-plagued prairie for the coast, hoping the ocean breezes would offer protection. Just two weeks later, they found themselves in a rented house as the Great Storm hit.

As the water rose, they moved to the highest point of the house, tying the children together with torn bedsheets. They watched as a brick synagogue next door, which they had considered for shelter, collapsed into the floodwaters. Their own house miraculously stood. Seger’s grandfather, Hunter Pinckney Harris, never forgot the terrifying loudness of the storm, the complete darkness, and the awful smell that followed.

Today, Constance Ann Harris Seger remains deeply connected to her heritage. She serves as the treasurer on the board of the Fulshear Cemetery, a role that keeps her visiting the town she loves at least once a month. While she acknowledges the immense changes brought by development and the toll road, she can still see the “sweet little town” in her mind’s eye. For her, the family legacy is one of kindness, community involvement, and doing good where you can. “It’s a legacy to be proud of,” she states, “and I feel proud of all of them.”

[NOTE: This article was originally published on June 29, 2025.]

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