Whispers of Diddy Wa Diddy drift on the breeze. This is Juliff Texas. A forgotten crossroads. A place etched in the heart of Fort Bend County.
Juliff’s story begins long ago. During the antebellum period it was part of the vast Arcola Plantation. John J Juliff a settler gave the town its name. The Brazos River once pulsed with life. Juliff thrived as a shipping point.
Then came the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway in 1858. A post office opened in 1891 a general store followed in 1896. Prosperity wasn’t long lived.
In 1933 Thurman “Doc” Duke changed the landscape. He bought land near the railway. A store appeared. He leased land to others. Soon a dance hall and several taverns sprang up.
Juliff transformed. Alcohol gambling and prostitution became commonplace. A local song emerged. “Diddy Wa Diddy ain’t no town ain’t no city” it went.
Diddy Wa Diddy. An unofficial name. The town’s rhythm. The song appeared in blues records. It spoke of a legendary place. A place where food was abundant work nonexistent. The lyrics however didn’t specifically mention Juliff.
By 1940 Juliff boasted 50 residents a church three businesses. The population grew to 150 in the 1940s. But by the 1960s the bars closed. The revelry shifted to Houston. Juliff faded.
Today little remains of Juliff’s boisterous past. Scattered houses mark its location along Farm to Market Road 521. The Missouri Pacific Railroad is gone. The Brazos River still flows nearby. But the echoes of “Diddy Wa Diddy” whisper of a town that once was. A place of cotton shipments. A place of saloons that moved to Richmond’s Mud Alley. A place where ragweed still grows. Juliff. A ghost town. A legend. A story waiting to be rediscovered.