Editing Texas City, Texas (section)

===Founding===
[[File:Frank B. Davison House.jpg|thumb|Frank B. Davison House]]

By 1893, the investors had formed the Texas City Improvement Company (TCIC), which plotted and filed the townsite plan. A post office opened in 1893 with [[Frank B. Davison]] appointed as the town's first postmaster, to serve about 250 people who had moved there from Minnesota and Michigan. TCIC also received permission from the federal government to dredge an eight-foot channel in the bay from Bolivar Roads (at the east end of Galveston Island) to serve Texas City.<ref name ="Wheaton">[http://www.local1259iaff.org/annalsoftexascity.htm Wheaton, Grant. "Annals of Texas City." Retrieved March 2, 2012]</ref> In 1894, the channel was first used commercially. TCIC eventually dredged the channel to a 40-foot depth and extended the length of the port to 1.5 mi. TCIC also built a 4-mi railroad to the Texas City Junction south of town, where it connected to two other rail lines: Galveston, Houston and San Antonio and Galveston-Houston and Henderson.<ref name="HOTO-Benham">Priscilla Myers Benham, "TEXAS CITY, TX," Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed February 29, 2012 [https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdt03]. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.</ref>

Despite these successes, the TCIC went bankrupt in 1897. Its assets were reorganized into two new companies: Texas City Company (TCC), and Texas City Railway Terminal Company (TCRTC). TCC acquired 3,000 city lots and provided water, gas, and electricity to the town. TCRTC operated the railroad. These companies were chartered on February 4, 1899.<ref name ="Wheaton"/><ref name="HOTO-Benham"/>

A grid of streets and avenues was laid out during the 1890s, and houses and other structures began to appear. The [[Davison Home]], where the first childbirth in the town took place, was constructed between 1895 and 1897.  As the TCIC, the TCC, and TCRTC expanded, urbanization expanded.

Permission was granted in the summer of 1900 to dredge the Texas City channel to a depth of 25 ft. The disastrous Galveston Hurricane of 1900 interrupted the project, washing the dredge ashore. However, the Texas City port remained open after the storm passed. Even before the channel dredging was complete, the first ocean-going ship, SS ''Piqua'', arrived at the port from Mexico on September 28, 1904. Dredging was completed March 19, 1905, when the US government opened a customs house in Texas City.<ref name ="Wheaton"/> Port growth progressed rapidly after this, from 12 ships in 1904, to 239 in 1910.<ref name="HOTO-Benham"/>

Texas City Refining Company was chartered in 1908 to build a refinery adjacent to the port facility. For several years, it was the only Texas refinery capable of producing the byproducts wax and lubricating oil. This facility was later acquired and expanded by Texas oilman [[Sid Richardson]].<ref name ="Wheaton"/> Three more refineries soon followed, making Texas City a major port for deepwater shipping of Texas petroleum products to the Atlantic Coast.<ref name="HOTO-Benham"/>

Texas City incorporated in 1911 with a mayor and commission form of government. It held its first mayoral election on September 16, choosing William P. Tarpey as mayor.<ref name ="Wheaton" />

The 2nd Division of the United States Army deployed to Texas City in 1913 to guard the Gulf Coast from incursions during the Mexican Revolution, essentially encamping nearly half of the nation's land military personnel there, due to the perceived double threat that the Mexican Revolution might spill over across the border or that the neighboring country might become a German ally in the incipient World War.

The military deployment also included the 1st Aero Division, and the Wright brothers trained over a dozen soldiers as military pilots, essentially turning Texas City into the birthplace of what became the [[United States Air Force]], as the city claims at its monument of the birthplace of the Air Force at Bay Street City Park.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.texas-city-tx.org/RecTour/BayStPark.htm |title=Bay Street Park |access-date=June 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140605051935/http://www.texas-city-tx.org/RecTour/BayStPark.htm |archive-date=June 5, 2014 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Speed and distance records were set by pilots trained and planes flying out of Texas City's impromptu military air base.

An August 1915 hurricane completely demolished the encampment. Nine soldiers were killed. Military leaders promptly moved the camp to San Antonio.<ref name="HOTO-Benham"/>

In 1921, the Texas City Railway Terminal Company took over operations of the port facilities. Hugh B. Moore was named president of the company and began an ambitious program of expansions. He was credited with attracting a sugar refinery, a fig processing plant, a gasoline cracking plant, and a [[grain elevator]]. Also, more warehouses and tank farms were built to support this growth. By 1925, Texas City had an estimated population of 3,500 and was a thriving community with two [[refineries]] producing gasoline, the Texas City Sugar Refinery, two cotton compressing facilities, and even passenger bus service.<ref name="HOTO-Benham"/>

The Great Depression and competition caused the sugar refinery to fail in 1930. Economic hard times afflicted the city for a few years until the oil business returned to expansion. Republic Oil Refinery opened a gasoline refinery in 1931. In 1934, Pan American Refinery (a subsidiary of [[Standard Oil Company of Indiana]]) began operating. Moore was able to win this refinery from the [[Houston Ship Channel]] because of Texas City's location nearer the Gulf of Mexico. By the end of the 1930s, Texas City's population had grown to 5,200.<ref name="HOTO-Benham"/>

[[File:Seatrain Louisiana at Refinery Dock, Texas City 1952.jpg|thumb|''Seatrain Louisiana'' at Refinery Dock, Texas City 1952]]

[[Seatrain Lines]] constructed a terminal at the Texas City port during 1939–1940. This was a specialized company that owned ships designed to carry railroad cars from Texas City to New York City on a weekly schedule. By 1940, Texas City was the fourth-ranked Texas port, exceeded only by [[Houston]], [[Beaumont, Texas|Beaumont]], and [[Port Arthur, Texas|Port Arthur]].<ref name="Wheaton"/>