TAVENER, TEXAS. Tavener, twelve miles west of Richmond in southwestern Fort Bend County, was established in 1890 as a stop on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and was named for Charley Tavener, an area pioneer. It secured a post office in 1910, and by 1914 it had a general store, a lumberyard, a telephone connection, and a population of twenty-five. In 1926 Tavener had one school for 135 white students and a second school for twenty-eight black students. The post office closed sometime after 1930. By 1933 Tavener had fifty residents and four businesses; in 1945 its population was still fifty, but there was only one business reported. By 1953 its population had decreased to twenty, and it remained at that level until 1970, when it rose to thirty. Tavener was shown on the 1987 county highway map. No later population statistics were available.

Stephen L. Hardin