Japanese immigrant sowed seeds of Gulf Coast rice industry.
Webster Is Cradle of Rice Farms Yielding $65 Million Annually
The first story appeared Sunday, May 21, 1961, and the second was published Sunday, Feb. 5, 1967. The headlines and text are reprinted.
The town of Webster, on the prairie between Houston and Galveston, is the cradle of the Texas Gulf Coast rice farming industry.
K. Saibara, 76 Webster’s senior citizen, wasn’t the first settler there, but he is the man who put the town on the map.
A Japanese immigrant, Saibara and his father settled in Webster in 1904 at the invitation of the Houston Chamber of Commerce. The chamber wanted Saibara to determine just how successfully rice could be grown in this area. Did Job Well
Saibara did his job well. He spawned an industry that brings area rice farmers $65 million annually, and boosts the coastal area economy to tune of $400 million a year.
Though Webster is in the middle of a rice and truck farm belt, the town itself is not a farm-to market shipping point. Produce from the area is trucked to Houston and Galveston. There are less than 10 businesses in the town, and no depot for the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad. Population 600
Webster is a community of modern homes and wide, paved streets. Its population is about 600.
Most of the heads of Webster’s 200-odd families work in the Clear Creek Schools, commute to jobs in Houston, or are employed in the town’s two plants — a tank town’s two plants — a tank farm operated by Humble Oil and Refining Co., and a generating station of the Houston Lighting and Power Co.
These two plants pay 90 per cent of the town’s $6 million property assessment. The tax rate is low — 63 cents per $100 valuation, based on 25 per cent of actual value. Founded in 1879
Webster was first settled in 1879 by James W. Webster, who brought a group of English colonists with him. By 1882, the settlement had a post office and was known as Websterville.
Artis Davis, 54, an engineer and director of transportation for the Clear Creek schools, has been mayor since the village incorporated in 1958 by a vote of 108 to 3.
“Webster is a fine place in which to live,” the mayor said with pride. “I’m a typical resident, and look what I have. My house sits on a big lawn facing a paved street with a street light on the corner. I get my garbage picked up and my taxes are low. I’ve got a garden nearly a block long, and yet I’m minutes away from Houston by the Galveston Freeway. It’s small-town living, but just outside a big city. You can’t beat it.”