My husband and I drove out to Fabis Park the other day. It was a beautiful evening, cooler, with storms promised soon by forecasters. They are bound to be right sometimes. The park is one of our favorites because of the beautiful trees, the stillness that we find sitting on the banks of Pecan Bayou, watching the water flow past.
A man in a pickup drove up and stopped. He was coming to feed the new group of ducks that showed up a few months ago. My husband, who always talks to everyone he meets, asked him if he knew how the park ended up belonging to the City of Brownwood.
The story goes, according to our duck feeder, that a man named Fabis once owned the land. He lived alone out there with his dog. One year, 1976 to be exact, there was a terrible storm. Mr. Fabis and his dog hid inside a claw footed bathtub until the storm passed. When he and the dog came out, there was nothing left of his home but a concrete slab. It had been completely destroyed by the storm. The City of Brownwood banded together to come to the aid of Fabis, helping him to rebuild his house free of charge. Mr. Fabis had no close family, so when he died he left the land that is now Fabis Primitive Park to the City of Brownwood.
The man feeding the ducks turned out to be City Councilman Ed McMillian, who was gracious enough to direct me to Pat Chesser at City Hall for more information. Mr. Chesser’s office in turn forwarded me some details on the grant Mr. Fabis made of the land to the City of Brownwood. It reads in part:
THAT I, ADOLPH I. FABIS, a single man, of the County of Brown,
State of Texas, for and in consideration of the love and affection
I have for my lands and pecan orchards and my desire to share
them in perpetuity with the citizens of my community and country,
have granted, given and conveyed, and by these presents do grant,
give and convey unto the City of Brownwood, a municipal corporation
of the State of Texas, for the use and benefit of the general
public and as a place of recreation for the general public and
the beautification of the City of Brownwood, all of the following[…]
Mr. Fabis’ gift of land to the City was the result of a gift the residents of Brownwood gave to him, but it is much more than what he was given. The beauty of the park is in its lack of development. It is a little over 22 acres, along FM 2126 heading to Lake Brownwood Dam. There are no playgrounds, no soccer fields or tennis courts, no walking trails–just the slow-moving bayou, with birds you might have never seen before and may not again, flying overhead. The lonesome call of a wandering hawk is heard more often than a car engine. You can listen to the sound of the wind in old pecan trees. There’s a sense of timelessness there, a peaceful feeling that everything you’re seeing looks pretty much the way it has for a thousand years.
The driveway to the park, a sort of winding trail lined by trees and dappled with light, with fences covered in tangled vines, is itself something worth seeing. Watching the storm clouds roll in over the bayou after a long summer is as close to heaven, maybe, as a person can feel down here on the earth. It’s funny to think that a storm caused the creation of the park. Out of the storm came the kindness of the citizens of Brownwood to one man in his time of trouble, and out of that kindness came a treasure for generations of visitors.
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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns and articles appear periodically on BrownwoodNews.com