Humble

History

 

Sign marking Humble

The first settlers began moving into the Humble area in the early 19th century. Joseph Dunman is believed to be the first settler in 1828. A ferry was built nearby, across the San Jacinto River. The area of Humble became a center for commercial activity due to the region's large oil industry.^[7]

The city got its name from one of the original founders/settlers, Pleasant Smith Humble, who opened the first post office in his home and later served as justice of the peace.^[8] In 1883, a city directory reported that he operated a fruit stand. In 1885, he was a wood dealer, and in 1900, the District 99, Justice Pct. 4, Harris Co., Texas Census reported his occupation as attorney at law.

Humble became an oil boomtown in the early 1900 when oil was first produced there.^[5] The first oil was produced a couple years after the famous Spindletop discovery in Beaumont, Texas. Railroad linkage was established in 1904, and shortly thereafter the first tank car of oil was shipped out of Humble's oil field. By 1905 the Humble oilfield was the biggest producing field in Texas.^[5] The Humble oil fields are still active and have produced over 138,835,590 barrels (22,073,095 m³) of oil. The town was the home of the Humble Oil & Refining Company, founded in 1911, a predecessor of Exxon. When the oil boom receded, many land owners returned to truck farming, dairy farming and the timber industry.

Humble remained a rather small, quiet city until the opening of the Houston Intercontinental Airport in 1969.^{[clarification needed]}

Humble City Council passed, by a 5-1 vote, a public smoking ban on that took effect on March 6, 2012.^[9]