Editing Boling-Iago, Texas (section)

==History==
[[File:Boling Texas US Post Office.JPG|thumb|left|upright=0.9|The US Postal Service changed the name from Bolling in 1926.]] 
The first settlement in the area was known as Floyd's Lane which was on a trail that ran from a [[Colorado River (Texas)|Colorado River]] crossing on the west to a [[San Bernard River]] crossing on the east. A trail that ran beside Caney Creek connected the area to Wharton. Boling was founded in 1900 when the New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad built a line through the area. The settlement was named for Mary Bolling Vineyard, the then-6-year-old daughter of Robert E. Vineyard who had the town surveyed. By 1907 the town had a school, a store, a blacksmith shop, and about ten families. The school had four teachers and 104 black students. These children descended from the African-American slaves who worked the area's plantations in the [[History of the United States (1849-1865)|pre-Civil War era]]. Their parents were sharecroppers or hired hands on the large land tracts which survived from the earlier time.<ref name=Hudgins>Hudgins, ''BOLING, TX''</ref>

Boling expanded in population from 20 in 1920 to 450 in 1930 after [[petroleum]], [[sulphur]], and [[natural gas]] were discovered locally in mid-decade. The post office opened in 1926, dropping the second L in the town's name to change it to Boling. The town's streets were named after the oil companies that operated nearby.<ref name=Hudgins/> There are still streets named Atlantic, Gulf, Humble, Magnolia, Sinclair, Sun, and Texas.<ref name=Google/> The Boling Chamber of Commerce was set up in 1935. The town's population reached 800 in 1944, dipped to 521 in 1972, and increased to 1,297 in 1990. The community's economy was hard-hit in December 1993 when the sulphur plant in Newgulf closed. In 2000 Boling's population was 1,271.<ref name=Hudgins/>