Pearland

Pearland started at a siding switch on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1882, with a post office opening in 1893 under the name Mark Belt. The plat for Pear-Land was filed at the Brazoria County courthouse in September 1894 by Witold von Zychlinski, who saw the pear trees and decided the name would suit. Early residents farmed the prairie for pears, figs, cantaloupes, corn and watermelons, and developers sold the place as an agricultural Eden; the first subdivision was called Suburban Gardens. The city incorporated in November 1959, and in 1960 annexed a hundred-foot-wide strip encircling sixty square miles to keep Houston from annexing it first.

Source: Pearland, Texas — Wikipedia