A History of Our Hometown

Originally named Dairy, Alief, Texas is rich in heritage and culture. We want to share with you Alief's history that you may not know.

In 1861, Reynolds Reynolds bought the land that would soon be Dairy, Texas. The first two town settlers, Dr. John S. Magee and his wife, Alief Ozelda Magee, moved to Dairy that same year.

Alief Ozelda Magee, acting as the town's first postmistress, applied to open the first post office in 1895. Due to a close town named Daisy, the postal service referred to Dairy as "Alief". Alief who the city is named after and is buried in the historic Alief cemetery.

After receiving major damage from The Flood of 1899, many were forced to move from Dairy due to the damage. The Harris County Flood Control was then formed.

The flood caused the main cash crop to turn to rice from corn. Due to the success of the rice crops, it persuaded many to return to the town, causing an influx of residence. After that, the town grew rapidly because of the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railway.

With so many people moving to Alief there became a need for an education system to be developed. Education in Alief was segregated from 1927 to 1937. African American children used Prairie Grove Missionary Baptist Church's sanctuary as a schoolhouse until the segregation ended.

In 1917 the Alief Independent School District was formed. David Outley was the first African American educator in Alief.

As the population of Alief increased in the 1980s, the community began to diversify. In 1978, close to 80% of the people in the community were white. Less than 4% of the people in the community were African American. Many African Americans moved to the affluent town for a better community and education.

Creating one of the largest Asian-American concentrations in Houston many people of Asian ancestry settled in Alief. Southwest Houston's Asian population included mainly immigrants from China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Korea. In addition, Southwest Houston became home to many people from Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Laos, and Indonesia. By the late 1980s, white students accounted for less than half of the students enrolled in Alief ISD.

With such cultural diversity, Alief is a melting pot where everyone was friends with any race.

The history of Alief is a proud one, one to take honor in knowing that is where you are from. A strong community that has only grown and gotten stronger.