Editing Conroe, Texas (section)

==History==
The city is named after Isaac Conroe. Born in the North, he served as a Union Cavalry officer and settled in [[Houston]] after the Civil War. There he became a lumberman.<ref name="tshaonline">Jackson,
 Charles Christopher. [https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hec03 Conroe, TX.] The Handbook of Texas Online: December 11, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2018.</ref> Conroe founded a sawmill in this area in 1881.<ref name="tshaonline"/> The community built its early economy and wealth on the lumber industry. Originally named "Conroe's Switch",<ref name="tshaonline"/> the community received an influx of workers and residents in the late 19th century who were attracted to the growth of the lumber industry, which harvested the local piney wood forest.<ref name="tshaonline"/>

In 1886, Conroe Mill School was established in the expanding town. [[Conroe Normal and Industrial College]], a school for African Americans, served the area.

Six lynchings were recorded in Montgomery County around the turn of the century, and some suspects were lynched at the courthouse in Conroe. In 1922, a young black man named [[Lynching of Joe Winters|Joe Winters was lynched]], burned alive on the courthouse square for allegedly attacking a young white woman.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Lynching in Texas Staff|title=Lynching of Joe Winters - May 20, 1922|url=http://www.lynchingintexas.org/items/show/521|access-date=2021-06-02|website=Lynching In Texas|language=en}}</ref> Within the black community, it was known he was in a consensual relationship with the woman, who denied it when they were discovered.

In 1941 Bob White was shot to death in the courthouse, during his third trial. The African-American man was arrested in 1936 on charges of assaulting a white woman in [[Livingston, Texas]]. (Alternative accounts in the black community said they had a standing consensual relationship.) He was first tried there, before an [[all-white jury]]. They convicted him. The case was appealed with the help of the [[NAACP]] in Houston because he had not been given a lawyer or been able to contact family, and he was tortured in interrogation. The second trial was held in Conroe for a [[change of venue]]. Another [[all-white jury]] convicted White again. The case reached the United States Supreme Court on appeal, which had just ruled that coerced confessions were unconstitutional and remanded the case to the lower court for trial. During the proceedings in the courtroom, in front of the judge and numerous witnesses, the husband of the alleged victim shot White in the back of the head and immediately killed him. The husband was arrested and tried the following week, and was acquitted.

In 1931 [[George W. Strake]] discovered the Conroe Oil Field. Distillate and natural gas were produced from the [[Cockfield Formation]] at a depth of about {{convert|5000|ft|m}}. cA second well in 1932 produced 1200 [[BOPD]].  By 1935, the field had produced 40 million barrels of oil.<ref name=oo>{{cite book |last1=Olien |first1=Diana |last2=Olien |first2=Roger |title=Oil in Texas, The Gusher Age, 1895-1945 |date=2002 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |isbn=0292760566 |pages=212–213}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Michaux |first1=Frank |last2=Buck |first2=E.O. |title=Conroe Oil Field, Montgomery County, Texas |url=http://archives.datapages.com/data/bulletns/1931-37/images/pg/00200006/0700/07360.pdf |website=AAPG Bulletin Data Pages Archives |publisher=AAPG |access-date=30 August 2020 |pages=736–773 |date=1936}}</ref>

During the 1930s, because of oil profits, the city briefly boasted more millionaires per capita than any other U.S. city.<ref name="tshaonline"/> After the construction of [[Interstate 45]] in the postwar period improved automobile access,  many Houstonians began to follow the highway to new suburban communities that developed around Conroe.<ref name="tshaonline"/>