Baytown, Texas Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == History == {{See also| History of the Galveston Bay Area}} [[White Americans|White American]] settlers first arrived in the now-Baytown area in 1822.<ref name="TSHA">{{cite web|title=Baytown, TX |work=Handbook of Texas Online, Texas State Historical Association |author=Buck A. Young |access-date=November 8, 2009 |url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdb01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715035008/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdb01 |archive-date=July 15, 2011 }}</ref> One of its earliest settlers was Nathaniel Lynch, who set up a ferry crossing at the junction of the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou. The still-operating ferry service is known as the [[Lynchburg Ferry]]. Other early settlers of Baytown included William Scott, one of [[Stephen F. Austin]]'s [[Old Three Hundred]], and [[Ashbel Smith]], who owned a [[plantations in the American South|plantation]] in the area. The city now known as Baytown was originally three separate towns. The first of these was Goose Creek, named for the bayou of the same name where [[Canada goose|Canada geese]] wintered and whose name is still reflected in the area's [[Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District|Goose Creek school district]], whose establishment dates back to before 1850. With the discovery of the [[Goose Creek Oil Field]], the rival communities of Pelly in the late 1910s, and East Baytown in the early 1920s, developed as early [[boomtown]]s.<ref name="TSHA"/> The "East" in East Baytown was later dropped because it was west of Goose Creek.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baytown.org/about/history/default.htm |title=History of Baytown |publisher=City of Baytown |access-date=Jan 31, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091215140333/http://www.baytown.org/about/history/default.htm |archive-date=December 15, 2009 }}</ref> Serious talk of merging the three cities began shortly after [[World War I]], but the community of Baytown was opposed to this idea. However, in 1947, the three cities finally agreed to consolidate. The citizens settled on the name Baytown for the new combined city. Baytown as it is known today was officially founded January 24, 1948.<ref name="TSHA"/> In 1916, the [[Humble Oil and Refining Company]], founded by one-time Texas governor [[Ross S. Sterling]] and his associates, in developing the Goose Creek Oil Field, built the first [[offshore drilling]] operation in Texas and the second in the United States. The company later built the [[Baytown Refinery]], which would become one of the largest Exxon refineries in the world. Since then, many other refineries have been built in the area. [[Exxon-Mobil]] is still one of the major employers in the city and now runs over 10 plants in the area including a newly announced 2 billion dollar expansion to its chemical facilities in 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|title=ExxonMobil announces $2 billion Baytown chemical expansion project; releases study showing value of investments to U.S. economy|url=https://corporate.exxonmobil.com:443/News/Newsroom/News-releases/2019/0502_ExxonMobil-Announces-2-Billion-Baytown-Chemical-expansion-project|access-date=2021-02-03|website=ExxonMobil|language=en}}</ref> Following the discovery of oil nearby, the population of Baytown and the tri-cities boomed. Many immigrants arrived in Baytown, among them a number of Jewish families who founded a synagogue, K’nesseth Israel, in 1930.<ref>[http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/index.html Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities], [http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/tx/baytown.html "Baytown, Texas"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402064358/http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/tx/baytown.html |date=April 2, 2012 }}</ref> Steel manufacturing in Baytown began in 1970 when [[United States Steel]] opened the Texas Works near the city. The plant was officially closed in July 1986, due to a poor economic climate and the decline of American steel in the 1980s. The mill was later purchased by Jindal Steel and now operates as [[JSW Steel Ltd|JSW Steel USA, Inc]].<ref name="TSHA"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page