Thank you for your question.  The snake in your photograph is most likely the Texas Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi texana).  There is another subspecies of brown snake that occurs in a narrow area from the Louisiana border down to Port Lavaca, Texas, called the marsh brown snake (Storeria dekayi limnetes), but I believe the Fort Bend area is in the Texas brown snake's range.

Brown snakes are non-venomous.  They generally range in size from 9 to 13 inches, but can reach a maximum length of approximately 18 inches.  They are found in a variety of habitats, including pine/oak mixed forests, pine forests, grasslands, juniper brakes and thorn scrubs.  They are also quite adaptable to urban environments. They are usually found in damp, shaded habitat that has sufficient ground cover for them to hide and hunt for their primary foods, earthworms, slugs and snails. Here in North Carolina, I usually get several calls in the spring when people are raking out their old mulch or pine straw and find this species concealed beneath the ground cover.

This snake generally doesn't bite when handled, but may flatten its head, like it's doing in your first photograph, to make itself appear larger.  They also sometimes discharge a strong musk from their anal glands.

Copperheads have a completely different pattern and are much thicker bodied than this species.  You can go to this website to see some excellent photographs of venomous snakes found in Texas:
http://www.whatsnakeisthat.com/south/texas.html 

An excellent field guide you may want to consider is:

 Dixon, James R. and Werler, John E. (2005). Texas Snakes: A             Field Guide. Austin: University of Texas Press

Hope this answers your question and thank you for using Ask an Expert.    

Jim