Information about Ingleside, Texas (1930's-1940's)
History of Ingleside...
Ingleside is on Live Oak Peninsula,(History&Map) across Corpus Christi Bay from the City of Corpus Christi, Texas. People started coming into the area in 1850. The land was sandy with live oaks and well suited to truck farming. Vegetables, grapes, grain and cattle were grown and later fish and shrimp were harvested from the shallow bays.
In the group picture, most of us were born in 1928. The town began to grow after Humble Oil & Refining Company began the construction of a refinery in 1927. Money was not available on farms so promise of jobs attracted many people to Ingleside and the construction jobs. Some men left their families on the farm and later sent for them. Others brought their families with them. A lack of housing caused Humble to build Company houses. Each house was exactly like the others. They were all gray, all had front porches and a garage. The electricity, water, sewerage and maintenance was furnished by Humble for about $25 per month. The jobs were probably paying about $100 per month. Humble helped the town of Ingleside. They donated land where a new high school was built in 1939, put up lights for the football field, (the first one in the area), had an annual fish fry for the employees but everyone in town attended, allowed anyone to use their Community Hall for dances or meetings, allowed any of us to use their tennis courts, gave money to the school system, just a good corporate citizen.
There were about 800 people in the town, many of them working for Humble, others truck farming and others shrimping in the bays. When people first came to the area, row boats were used to go out in the bay and dip nets used to catch shrimp because there were so many. Someone developed a market for shrimp in San Antonio by shipping iced barrels with instructions as how to prepare the shrimp. Orders were received and the shrimping industry was born.
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