Bloomington

Bloomington, the second principal city in Victoria County, is on State Highway 185 in a major oilfield fifteen miles southeast of Victoria. The town was established as a station on the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway (built in 1906) and laid out in 1910 by developers Burton, Wharton, and Wilson. The site was named for Bloomington, Illinois, the original home of many of the first settlers. The post office was established in 1907. When the railway completed a branch from Victoria to Port O'Connor in 1912, Bloomington became an important crossroads. The next year the town was incorporated, and its population grew to 600 by 1925. The corporation was dissolved in 1929 to enable the county to build a road through the site from Placedo to Victoria. The discovery of oil in April 1947 added to the area's rich agricultural and ranching assets, primarily the Patrick H. Welder and Traylor estate properties. The community's population reached 1,756 in 1960. The number of businesses declined, however, from thirty-five to nineteen as the divided highway afforded easy access to Victoria. The Bloomington Independent School District, founded in 1919, originated from the rural school that was first held in a lumberyard there in 1908. The district covers 111 square miles, takes in the Placedo and Dacosta areas, and in 1986 was the only system in Victoria County operating its own buses. Though Bloomington's population declined slightly during the 1970s, the 1980 census recorded 1,840 residents there. Many worked at the nearby Dupont and Union Carbide plants, which were built in the early 1950s and contributed significantly to the area's growth. Eight churches and five businesses were listed at the community in 1984. The population in 1990 was 1,888, and in 2000 it grew to 2,562.