In November of 1891, at the age of twenty-five, John MacDonald Blackstock Hawley arrived in Fort Worth, Texas. A civil engineer from Minnesota, Hawley "hung out his shingle" in 1894 and began a tradition of engineering in Texas that his successors in the firm of Freese and Nichols have continued for one hundred years.
This history of Freese and Nichols focuses on the firm's contributions, design innovations, and "firsts" in water supply, water treatment, and wastewater engineering; transportation design for roads, bridges, and airports; city and regional planning; environmental science; and general civil and environmental engineering. A personal as well as professional account, A Century in the Works offers anecdotes about John Hawley's battle-ax punch and eccentric scientific experiments, Simon Freese's penchant for practical jokes, and Marvin Nichols's "water fights" and genealogical shakeups of his family tree.
The Freese and Nichols story will interest urban and environmental historians, professional engineers, and those working in related fields of hydraulic engineering, municipal and industrial water and sanitary systems, water quality, dam safety, waste management, transportation systems, and urban development.
The student of Texas history will find much of interest here as well. In many ways, the history of Freese and Nichols parallels that of the state for the past one hundred years.
The firm has had a pivotal role in developing Texas water resources since Hawley arrived in the state. And it will be the rare Texas reader who has never gone boating or picnicking at one of the over a hundred Texas lakes engineered by the firm in the intervening century.

The story of Emil Henry Marks and the LH7 Ranch he founded records not only the history of a unique family but also tells something of the cattle business on the coastal prairies of Texas when ranching was the principal industry of the region, before Houston became a major metropolitan center and industry became king. It also chronicles the beginning of the Salt Grass Trail, one of Houston's most enduring traditions. Marks registered the LH7 brand in Harris County in 1898 and started the ranch with 63 acres of grass west of Houston and a few Longhorn cattle. By the early 1930s the LH7 was running 6,670 head on 36,000 acres. The city's shadow loomed over the LH7 in the 1940s and 1950s, and eventually a big bite of the ranch was condemned to protect booming Houston from flooding along Buffalo Bayou. At age seventy, Marks made the first Salt Grass Trail ride in January, 1952, which is reenacted each February to kick off the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.