Texas City

Texas City, on the southwestern shore of Galveston Bay seven miles from Galveston and eleven miles from the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston County, is a deepwater port on the mainland. In 1891, while on a duck-hunting trip to the marshlands of a community known as Shoal Point in Galveston Bay, three brothers from Duluth, Minnesota-Jacob R., Henry, and Benjamin F. Myers-saw that the area had potential as a major port. Other Duluth shippers joined the Myers brothers in buying 10,000 acres of Galveston Bay frontage, including Shoal Point, and renamed the area Texas City. On May 17, 1893, the Texas City Improvement Company filed the first townsite plat. The same year the post office was established. The population soon was 250, mostly from Minnesota and Michigan. In 1893 the federal government gave the Texas City Improvement Company permission to dredge an eight-foot Gulf channel to Texas City. In September 1894 the first shipment using the channel was handled. Continued dredging eventually increased the depth of the channel to forty feet and the length of the port to 1½ miles. The company constructed a four-mile rail line to the Texas City junction of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio and the Galveston, Houston and Henderson railroads. These rail connections were extended to the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific systems. The single-track trestle pier extended into the waters of Galveston Bay and thus allowed shippers to send freight by train to Houston, where it could join the national railway systems. The Texas City Improvement Company experienced financial difficulties and went into receivership on December 7, 1897. It was then reorganized into two new companies-the Texas City Railway Terminal Company, organized to operate the railroad, and the Texas City Company, which purchased the town lots and provided water, gas, and lights to the town.

Capt. A. B. Wolvin, one of the founders of Texas City, persuaded the federal government to finance the dredging of a twenty-five-foot channel. Dredging began in the summer of 1900, but the disastrous Galveston hurricane of 1900 halted operations. The Texas City port remained open, however, so that no Texas trade had to be diverted. Finally, the task was completed in 1905, and the federal government opened a customs house in Texas City. The deepened channel, the railroad connections, and the expansion of warehouses and docks made Texas City an attractive port. Growth was rapid; the number of ships using the Texas City docks increased from twelve in 1904 to 239 in 1910. Increased port activity came in part from the building of the Texas City Refining Company. The company was chartered in 1908, a few years after the discovery of oil at the Spindletop oilfield. The refinery handled midcontinent crude and for a few years was the only Texas refinery to manufacture wax and refined lubricating oil. During the next twenty years the building of tank farms, pipelines, and three more refineries firmly established Texas City as a tidewater terminal for shipment of Texas crude to the Atlantic terminal. The community established the Texas City Independent School District on July 11, 1905. By 1911 the number of inhabitants had grown to 1,169, and on September 16, 1911, the city incorporated under the commission form of government with William P. Tarpley, state representative for Galveston County in 1901, as mayor. H. M. Coats and Frank B. Davidson were the first commissioners.

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Priscilla Myers Benham | © TSHA

Handbook of Texas Logo

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Belongs to

Texas City is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Texas City is classified as a Town

Associated Names

  • (Shoal Point)

Location

Latitude: 29.44683310
Longitude: -94.89247600

Has Post Office

Yes

Is Incorporated

Yes

Population Count, 2021 View more »

54,247

Place Type Population (Year/Source) Currently Exists
College or University Yes

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