What Made Tomball Grow?

Land In the early 1800’s, settlers came to this area from Germany because they could buy a lot of good farm land for a very cheap price.

Railroads

Thomas Ball, a Houston Lawyer and former United States Congressman, worked hard to have railroads built through this area.

In 1906 a train station was built here and the community of Peck was started.

About 200 people lived in Tomball at this time. One year later in 1907, the town changed its name to Tomball in honor of Mr. Ball. About 200 people lived in Tomball at this time.

Oil

In 1933, oil was discovered in Tomball In 1933, oil was discovered in Tomball. Many oil companies quickly came here and soon there were oil rigs all over Tomball.

The largest company here, Humble Oil (now known as Exxon), even built a refinery here which employed several hundred people.

Tomball’s population grew from about 300 people to over 1,000 by 1950.

In the 1970’s, due to problems in oil producing countries overseas, oil became very expensive and the need for oil produced in Texas became much greater.

The oil companies hired lots of new people to produce the extra oil The oil companies hired lots of new people to produce the extra oil. Thousands of people moved to Texas and Harris County during this time.

The population of Tomball grew from about 2,500 to over 4,000 by 1980.

Computers

In 1984, Compaq built a factory in the Tomball area to make computers.

Compaq grew very quickly, and by the late 1980’s had over 4,000 employees.

Many of those people decided to live in Tomball, causing the population to grow to over 10,209 where it is today.

Tomball Unit Review Be Able To: Tomball is a small, but growing community. It is located in Harris County. Tomball was first called Peck after a railroad engineer. Then a man named William Malone bought the land called Peck, Texas and changed the town’s name to Tomball to honor Thomas Henry Ball. Thomas Ball was an attorney for the railroad that passed through the small community. Tom Ball was also a banker, three – term mayor of Huntsville, and a Congressman. The first mayor of Tomball was A. H. Keefer, who now has a street named after him. The present mayor is Gretchen Fagan. Be Able To: *Name one present business for each of the following categories: food, shelter, clothing, entertainment, and service. *Write about what you have to offer Tomball now and in the future. *State your favorite and least favorite things about Tomball. *List three ways in which Tomball and Houston are alike and three ways in which they differ. *List at least three things you learned about Tomball