Daisetta

Daisetta is at the southern junction of Farm roads 770 and 834, on a salt dome forty-one miles northwest of Beaumont in eastern Liberty County. Local storeowner Newt Farris named the town by combining the names of Daisy Barrett and Etta White. Daisetta was founded in the wake of the discovery of the nearby Hull oilfield in 1918, although planters and lumbermen had occupied the area as early as 1850. The Daisetta post office was established in 1921. The town was rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1924. Daisetta's economy, like that of its sister community of Hull, two miles north, depended largely upon oil. Several newspapers served Hull and Daisetta during the 1930s and 1940s. Among these were the Progressive Outlook, the Liberty County News, the Liberty County Press, and the Hull-Daisetta News. Despite the proximity of Hull, Daisetta residents maintained a strong independent identity, voting to incorporate their town in 1946, 1955, and 1961. Daisetta's population level, however, dropped as oilfield production declined. Although once Daisetta had an estimated 3,000 residents, the population was 1,764 in 1950 and 1,177 in 1980, when Daisetta had twenty-three businesses. In 1990 its population was 969, and in 2000 it was 1,034.