History
As early as 1824, Noah Tevis settled Tevis Bluff, with visions of establishing a town there. David
Brown had similar plans with a town called Santa Anna. Neither town would see
any development, however. In September 1835, a man named Henry Millard arrived
from New Orleans. He purchased 50 acres of land from Tevis, on the Neches River
bluff, between Tevis' house and Brown's survey.
In October, an
article appeared in the Telegraph and Texas Register: "We have been informed
that a town has lately been laid out on the tidewater of the River Neches, at a
place known as Tevis Bluff, 30 miles from Sabine Bay... It has received the name
of Beaumont, which from the description of the place, strikes our fancy as very
appropriate." The name had been given in honor of the family of his wife, Mary
Beaumont. The Texas Revolution soon intervened, and in October Millard left to
join the Consultation Delegation and, later, the Texian Army. Town building
activities were put on hold.
Sometime in 1836, Joseph
P. Pulsifer & Co., consisting of Millard, Thomas Huling and Joseph Pulsifer,
bought 50 acres of land from Samuel Rogers. This tract adjoined the original 50
acres Millard had purchased from Tevis. On paper the town was growing, but, as
yet, had not even been surveyed. Millard was still with the Army in various
parts of Texas, and since he was the "mover and shaker" of the group, little
could be done without him. Finally in 1836, Millard left the Army and returned
to Beaumont to build a town.
On July 12, 1837, J. P. Pulsifer & Co.
entered into an agreement with Joseph Grigsby and Nancy Tevis, each of whom
contributed an additional 50 acres for the "enlargement and more perfect
formation of the town of Beaumont." This gave the townsite 200 acres in all, and
the town was ready to become a reality. By October of that year, the survey of
the town was complete and prospective citizens of the town of Beaumont could
actually buy lots. By then, the Revolution was over, settlers were pouring in,
and Beaumont was a thriving community.
By January 1, 1838, Henry Millard had
prevailed on his old friend and commander-in-chief Sam Houston, by then the
President of the Republic of Texas, to have the county seat of the newly
expanded Municipality of Jefferson changed to Beaumont. Millard was appointed by
Houston as first Chief Justice of the present-day Jefferson County. The new
county seat of Beaumont received its charter as a town on December 16, 1838 by
an act of the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas. The Incorporation Act was
signed by President Mirabeau B. Lamar.
Even though its
population continued to increase, the antebellum town of Beaumont was still a
frontier village of log buildings and muddy, newly cleared streets. The center
of town developed, not at the Tevis homestead, but about half a mile down river
where the sharp westward bend of the Neches at the foot of Main Street caused a
natural harbor. There, a wooden wharf stood. Clustered around were several
stores, a saloon (the Red Front), and on the east side of Main, a blacksmith
shop. A log schoolhouse stood in the woods at the present-day intersection of
Pearl and College Streets, and at the corner of Park and Milam Streets was a low
log building rented by the Jefferson County Commissioners Court to be used as a
courthouse. A two-story log jail was the town's first building.
On July 28, 1840, an election was held
under the Incorporation Act, and on August 8, Beaumont's first elected officials
were sworn into office. Elected Mayor was Alexander Calder, a New Yorker who had
traveled to Beaumont by horseback in 1838 and had become a lawyer after his
arrival. The new Mayor promptly addressed himself to the problems at hand,
appointing committees in charge of roads and streets, finances, landings,
wharves and ferries, and to be sure that all miscellaneous ground was covered,
general expediencies. One of the first ordinances passed by the new City Council
established liability for removing carcasses of cattle that had drowned while
they were being driven across the Neches.
In the secession election of early 1861,
141 Beaumonters voted with the rest of Texas to secede from the Union; only 12
voted to remain a part of it. With the attack on Fort Sumpter, the Civil War
became a reality and Beaumonters began preparing for war. City government not
only ground to an abrupt halt, but the town newspaper, The Beaumont Banner,
ceased publication. The editor of the paper, who was also the town's Mayor, left
to join Hood's Brigade. Reconstruction was a difficult time for Beaumonters. By
the summer of 1865, Union troops occupied the town. Beaumont's economy had
slowed almost to a standstill. Even after civil government was restored in 1870,
Beaumonters had to rebuild their farms and businesses almost from scratch.
The railroads began to develop rapidly,
however, furnishing new transportation routes for lumber, and during the 1870's
and 1880's the lumber industry began to dominate the economy of Beaumont.
Several new lumber mills were built in town. In 1876, Pearl Street was cleared
and plowed, giving the city another main thoroughfare. White painted, two-story
Victorian styled homes began to replace the log structures.
In August 1892, Patillo Higgins, lumber magnate George W. Carroll, prominent lawyer and Civil
War veteran George W. O'Brien, and promoter J. D. Lanier formed the Gladys City
Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Co. It was named after Gladys Bingham, one of
Higgins' Sunday School pupils. From that day on, Higgins was obsessed with one
idea: to find oil on Spindletop Hill. Six years later, Higgins, deeply in debt,
was forced to sell out, but managed to retain the land he owned on the hill. He
advertised for someone to finance drilling at Gladys City, and in June 1899,
Captain Anthony F. Lucas, an Austrian-born mining engineer, arrived in Beaumont.
The well they drilled struck oil, but the
pipe soon collapsed from gas pressure and Lucas ran out of money. He took a small
bottle of oil to prospectors John H. Galey and James M. Guffy of Pittsburgh, who
agreed to finance the well. They engaged a drilling firm operated by the Hamill
brothers, an experienced team from the Corsicana, Texas oil field. They arrived
on the hill with their equipment, built a wooden derrick on the proposed well
site from a pattern drawn upon the ground, and began drilling in October 1900.
On the cold, clean morning of January 10, 1901, as the perplexed and exhausted
Hamills were installing a new bit, mud suddenly bubbled, gushed, and then shot
out of the drilling hole, pushing the four-inch pipe completely out of the well
and then ceasing. Soon mud and gas again erupted from the hole, followed by a
geyser of blackish-green oil. This time it didn't stop. The well-spouted
uncontrolled for nine days before it was capped. It was the Lucas Gusher. By
April 1901, there were six gushers on the hill. Spindletop's production far
outstripped the total yield of the rest of the world.
In a short time, the population jumped
from its original 9,000 to over 30,000. As the boom began to settle, Beaumont's
permanent population stabilized at around 20,000. The number of banks in town
had doubled from two to four. In 1902, $3 million worth of construction, much of
it residential, was begun. Several new commercial establishments were opened,
and the city installed natural gas, developed an artesian water supply and built
a city hall, jail and fire station.
The early 1920's were hard and the
citizens of Beaumont met with many adversities. They fought an epidemic of the
bubonic plague brought on by one of the ships docked in the port and had to
replace the wooden streets with asphalt and concrete after the town was
destroyed by a flood. Beaumonters did not actually feel the effects of the Great
Depression until 1931. Established investments failed and no new ones appeared.
The low point for Beaumont came in 1933. Frank Yount, who had aided the city at
least once by donating his personal funds to help meet its payroll, died, and
his company, the Yount-Lee Oil Co., was sold to Stanolind Oil Co. for $41.6
million. Afterward, the city succumbed to the worst financial period in its
history.
During World War II, Beaumont contributed
its usual industrial output to the war effort. Local industries such as oil
refining, manufacturing of war material and shipbuilding, vital to defense, were
mobilized for that purpose. This increased production expanded the population of
Beaumont from 59,000 in 1940 to 80,000 in 1943. As in the oil booms, growth
quickly outstripped the town's facilities. City buses overflowed; housing
shortages became critical. But as before, these wartime changes brought more
prosperity.
Postwar Beaumonters began to take new
interest in leisure and culture activities. In 1949, the Neches River Festival
was held for the first time. In January 1951, Beaumont celebrated Spindletop's
50th anniversary. Beaumont once again became a boomtown, complete with citizens
in 1901 attire and a replica of the gusher erected in downtown at Sunset Park
near the Southern Pacific Depot. Many celebrations were held throughout the
month. In 1957, Beaumont annexed the unincorporated communities of Rosedale,
Voth, and Amelia, increasing population from 104,416 to 122,800, creating a new
northern boundary of Pine Island Bayou, a tributary of the Neches River. This
expansion brought about the first suburban shopping centers that same year:
Beaumont Village in the north part of town and Gateway Shopping City in the
west. While these facilities served outlying areas, they contributed to the
eventual deterioration of the city's central business district.
The sixties and seventies were years of
both torment and triumph. The area, now referred to as the Golden Triangle,
which included Port Arthur and Orange, had become the petrochemical complex of
Southeast Texas. In 1971, Beaumont approved its first municipal bond issue for
the first time in almost 50 years. The bond issue covered $12 million for
improvements to the Port of Beaumont and $18 million for a new library, police
station, and water, sewer and street improvements. These were followed in 1974
by a $28 million bond issue covering construction of a new civic center,
municipal office building, riverfront park and covered area at the South Texas
State Fairgrounds. By 1975, the economy had progressed so far that the
nationwide recession had little effect on the area. In 1978, Beaumont was named
by Money Magazine as the town with the most potential for future growth in the
entire country.
During 1982, the local economy began to
slide into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. Tens of thousands
of jobs in the chemical, petroleum, shipbuilding, and oil drilling industries,
which formed the backbone of our economy, were lost. All across Southeast Texas
civic and business leaders responded to this economic downturn by rolling up
their sleeves and working together. By 1987, the recession reached its deepest
point, and a steady sustainable recovery had begun.
Beaumont's economy
continues to be dominated by the petrochemical industry, although manufacturing
industries have contributed less to increased overall employment. This shift
from manufacturing to service-oriented jobs is consistent with national trends
and is a reflection of productivity gains. Area leaders continue to be
successful in diversifying the economic base. This is particularly evident in
the increased jobs created in the services and government sectors. The
completion of local, state and federal prison facilities, along with the
expansion of the postal service, have not only created new employment
opportunities, but have also helped expand markets for small business.
Area chemical plants and refineries are
proceeding with major construction projects to meet increased product demand and
stricter environmental controls. In addition to construction jobs, new permanent
positions are being added at these facilities. This in turn, has prompted new
housing and school construction. An increase in the number of visitors to the
area has brought new hotels and restaurants. New shopping centers are popping up
all over town. Beaumont is now concentrating on revitalizing the central
business district, with plans for an entertainment development, along with the
restoration of several historic buildings downtown.
Easily one of the
greatest swing trumpeters and Big Band leaders of all time was Harry James.
Easily one of the greatest country singers of all time is George Jones. What do
they have in common?They
both spent early formative years in Beaumont, Texas. Harry James was born in
Albany, Georgia, but moved as a boy with his parents to Beaumont. According to
"Trumpet Blues"*, " ... few players dominated that (swing) era more than Harry
James ... one of the most essential trumpeters and bandleaders in the history of
American music ... When he was only in the seventh grade at Dick Dowling Junior
High School in Beaumont, Harry was asked to become a member of the Beaumont High
School Band ... On May 1 and 2, 1931, Harry entered a competition in the Texas
Band Teacher's Annual Eastern Division contest ... though still only a student
at the Dick Dowling Junior High School . .. He won first place in the solo
contest ...
Graduation from Dick Dowling Junior High School marked the extent of his formal
education. He began playing in dance bands around the Beaumont area..."
George Jones was born near Beaumont. According to "All About Music" **, "By most
accounts, George Jones is the finest vocalist in the recorded history of country
music ... Only Eddy Arnold
had more Top Ten hits than Jones, and George always
stayed closer
to the roots of hardcore country ... George Jones was born and
raised in East Texas, near the city of Beaumont. At an early age, George
displayed an affection for music. He enjoyed the gospel he heard in church and
on the family's Carter Family records, but he truly became fascinated with
country music when his family bought a radio when he was seven. When he was
nine, his father bought him his first guitar. Soon, his father had George
playing and singing on the streets on Beaumont, earning spare change." At 16, he
went to Jasper, TX, where he sang at a local radio station.
Almost half a million people call the greater
Beaumont area home. Beaumont, with a population of
114,000, is the region's largest city and the seat of
Jefferson County. Jefferson County, Hardin County, and
Orange County are home to 385,090 residents.
In October, an
article appeared in the Telegraph and Texas Register: "We have been informed
that a town has lately been laid out on the tidewater of the River Neches, at a
place known as Tevis Bluff, 30 miles from Sabine Bay... It has received the name
of Beaumont, which from the description of the place, strikes our fancy as very
appropriate." The name had been given in honor of the family of his wife, Mary
Beaumont. The Texas Revolution soon intervened, and in October Millard left to
join the Consultation Delegation and, later, the Texian Army. Town building
activities were put on hold.
Even though its
population continued to increase, the antebellum town of Beaumont was still a
frontier village of log buildings and muddy, newly cleared streets. The center
of town developed, not at the Tevis homestead, but about half a mile down river
where the sharp westward bend of the Neches at the foot of Main Street caused a
natural harbor. There, a wooden wharf stood. Clustered around were several
stores, a saloon (the Red Front), and on the east side of Main, a blacksmith
shop. A log schoolhouse stood in the woods at the present-day intersection of
Pearl and College Streets, and at the corner of Park and Milam Streets was a low
log building rented by the Jefferson County Commissioners Court to be used as a
courthouse. A two-story log jail was the town's first building.
eran George W. O'Brien, and promoter J. D. Lanier formed the Gladys City
Oil, Gas and Manufacturing Co. It was named after Gladys Bingham, one of
Higgins' Sunday School pupils. From that day on, Higgins was obsessed with one
idea: to find oil on Spindletop Hill. Six years later, Higgins, deeply in debt,
was forced to sell out, but managed to retain the land he owned on the hill. He
advertised for someone to finance drilling at Gladys City, and in June 1899,
Captain Anthony F. Lucas, an Austrian-born mining engineer, arrived in Beaumont.
Beaumont's economy
continues to be dominated by the petrochemical industry, although manufacturing
industries have contributed less to increased overall employment. This shift
from manufacturing to service-oriented jobs is consistent with national trends
and is a reflection of productivity gains. Area leaders continue to be
successful in diversifying the economic base. This is particularly evident in
the increased jobs created in the services and government sectors. The
completion of local, state and federal prison facilities, along with the
expansion of the postal service, have not only created new employment
opportunities, but have also helped expand markets for small business. 
g Band leaders of all time was Harry James.
Easily one of the greatest country singers of all time is George Jones. What do
they have in common?They
both spent early formative years in Beaumont, Texas. Harry James was born in
Albany, Georgia, but moved as a boy with his parents to Beaumont. According to
"Trumpet Blues"*, " ... few players dominated that (swing) era more than Harry
James ... one of the most essential trumpeters and bandleaders in the history of
American music ... When he was only in the seventh grade at Dick Dowling Junior
High School in Beaumont, Harry was asked to become a member of the Beaumont High
School Band ... On May 1 and 2, 1931, Harry entered a competition in the Texas
Band Teacher's Annual Eastern Division contest ... though still only a student
at the Dick Dowling Junior High School . .. He won first place in the solo
contest ...
Graduation from Dick Dowling Junior High School marked the extent of his formal
education. He began playing in dance bands around the Beaumont area..."
had more Top Ten hits than Jones, and George always
stayed closer
to the roots of hardcore country ... George Jones was born and
raised in East Texas, near the city of Beaumont. At an early age, George
displayed an affection for music. He enjoyed the gospel he heard in church and
on the family's Carter Family records, but he truly became fascinated with
country music when his family bought a radio when he was seven. When he was
nine, his father bought him his first guitar. Soon, his father had George
playing and singing on the streets on Beaumont, earning spare change." At 16, he
went to Jasper, TX, where he sang at a local radio station.
