Karankawa Indians hunted buffalo on this site as late as the 1820s, and present Fifth Street follows the course of the San Felipe Road, which was opened to Austin's colony in that decade. In 1836 Santa Anna used that road in his march toward San Jacinto, and this site was in the 1839 land grant of Republic of Texas citizen James J. Crawford. In 1863, at their camp on San Felipe Road, 35 Confederate soldiers died and were buried in the locality. Cane Island, the original settlement, was known as a stagecoach stop. Developers platted Katy townsite after the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, the Katy Line, reached this point in 1895. The post office opened Jan. 23, 1896, in the postmaster's mercantile store. In 1897, William Eule grew a rice crop, initiating the locality's major industry, and in 1899 Eule's son Fred dug an irrigation well for the rice fields. The 1900 hurricane razed or damaged all improvements except two houses in Katy, but the town was soon rebuilt. Beginning in 1927, nearby petroleum developments enhanced the local economy. Incorporated in 1945, the town had 849 people in 1950 and 3800 by 1970. It is a tri-county municipality, lying in Fort Bend, Harris, and Waller counties.