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Oak Ridge North, Texas (ZIP 77385) started in 1964, when the Arkansas-based Spring Pines Corporation bought land in the Charles Eisterwall Survey, two miles north of Spring Creek, as Interstate 45 opened. The city incorporated in 1979 with about 2,445 people.
Shenandoah, Texas (ZIP 77381) began in the late 1960s as Shenandoah Valley, on the east bank of Panther Creek beside the new Interstate 45. It incorporated in 1974 and at first claimed much of The Woodlands. A settlement about 1976 made it give that land back.
Richards, Texas (ZIP 77873) was founded in 1907 in eastern Grimes County, when people from Fairview and Longstreet moved to a new Trinity and Brazos Valley stop. Some hauled houses intact on log rollers. The railroad named the town for banker W. E. Richards, not for Governor Ann Richards.
Dobbin, Texas (ZIP 77333) began as a post office called Bobbin in 1880, on the Central and Montgomery Railway in western Montgomery County. In 1909 the name changed because the office had moved to a new railroad crossing about a mile away. A 1962 map still prints both Dobbin and Bobville.
Cleveland, Texas (ZIP 77327) got its name in 1878, when Charles Lander Cleveland deeded 63.6 acres to the Houston, East and West Texas Railway and asked that the station bear his name. The town did not incorporate until 1935.
Porter, Texas (ZIP 77365) began as a Houston, East and West Texas stop and a sawmill. The post office opened in 1892 as Porters. The town never incorporated. A boy from Porter later flew Columbia on the first Space Shuttle.
Tomball, Texas (ZIP 77375) began as Peck, a railroad stop. On December 2, 1907, it was renamed for Congressman Thomas Henry Ball. On May 27, 1933, drillers struck oil on J. F. W. Kob’s land and the farming town became Oil Town U.S.A.
Splendora, Texas (ZIP 77372) began as Cox’s Switch, a Houston, East and West Texas spur Charles Cox helped bring in for crossties and lumber. In 1896 the first postmaster named it for the “splendor of its floral environment.”
New Caney, Texas (ZIP 77357) began as Presswood in the 1860s, became Caney Station when the Houston, East and West Texas Railway arrived, and took the name New Caney in 1882 because Texas already had a Caney.
Cut and Shoot, Texas (ZIP 77303) did not begin with a founder’s name. It began in July 1912, when a community-house fight nearly turned violent and an eight-year-old said he would cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes.
Willis, Texas (ZIP 77318) began when the Willis brothers donated a townsite to the Houston and Great Northern Railroad in 1870. It tried to steal the county seat, then grew 90 percent of Texas’s tobacco.
Magnolia, Texas (ZIP 77354) did not begin as Magnolia. It began as Mink’s Prairie, moved two miles to the International-Great Northern Railroad in 1902, tried the name Melton, and then took the magnolia trees along Mill Creek.