League City to honor first Black settlers
League City officials recognized one of the town’s first Black settlers with a resolution to name a planned roadway in his honor.
Winfield Parkway will acknowledge the legacy of Alexander Winfield, a key figure in the city’s origin story and one of the first Black residents in League City to own land.
The road, which will connect Landing Boulevard and Maple Leaf Drive, recognizes the Winfield family’s place in the region’s history, said Deborah Konrad, Winfield’s great granddaughter.
Konrad, a Cypress resident, was one of at least a dozen Winfield descendants on hand during the city council’s Sept. 25 meeting, where the resolution passed unanimously. Family members were presented a commemorative street sign inscribed with the Winfield name.
“It means being seen,” she said of the dedication. “I don’t think we realize in our society how important it is to be affirmed and acknowledged, and to have a place where your legacy is acknowledged. To have the city acknowledge that means the world to me and my family.”
Alexander Winfield was born in Virginia and served as a Buffalo Soldier during the Civil War before settling with his wife and 10 children in League City in the early 1900s.
Before delving deep into her family genealogy, Konrad had only known two things about her great grandfather: he was a Black man from the North who came to Texas and bought land.
“That was what started me looking closer into what Alexander did,” Konrad said. ““I am very proud of Alexander Winfield because it’s not just the mechanics of it all, but he had the nerve, to stay here.”
With few physical documents available, Konrad learned through her own research that Winfield was a skilled horseman with many area connections, including a community of Black cowboys who settled in nearby Dickinson, and the Butlers, one of League City’s founding families.
In League City at the time, Black residents could only buy land with the authorization of a white man.
It was through that association, Konrad said, that he was able to buy 40 acres of land stretching from FM 518 to FM 517.
Winfield bought the land for $750, which he paid off a month at a time and never missed a payment, Konrad said.
Winfield’s daughter, Lilly, would later marry Obie Hobbs, another early settler, and the namesake of Hobbs Road.
“I had been here (in League City) for 50 years at that time, and I didn’t anything about Alexander Winfield,” said former League City mayor, Pat Hallisey, who learned Winfield’s story from local historians, and later, members of the Winfield family still living in League City.
“I knew about the Hobbs family, but I didn’t understand the connection,” Hallisey said.
Winfield died in 1915, and over time, Hallisey said, recognition of his name faded to a footnote in the historical archives because of the region’s history and culture of racism.
“The ills of the 20th century catch up with you sooner or later,” Hallisey said. “The way we treated African Americans was horrendous; they were second class citizens. But here was Alexander Winfield, who punched a hole in that and made his own way.”
The city expects to start construction on the first portion of Winfield Parkway in late 2024, according to city spokesperson Sarah Osborne. A timeline for its completion is not yet set.
For the more than 300 Winfield descendants living throughout League City and the Houston area, Konrad said, Winfield Parkway means the story of Alexander Winfield is officially a matter of record.
“He fought for his country twice, and he had the strength, and the unmitigated gall to stay in Texas and buy land and say, ‘This is where we’re going to take root,’” she said. “The more stories we have, no matter who they come from, only enriches us.”