Hamshire, Texas

Hamshire is an unincorporated community in western Jefferson County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. Hamshire, commonly referred to by some of its inhabitants as "Hamshire, America", is on State Highway 124 twenty miles southwest of Beaumont. It was probably named for Lovan Hamshire, who developed the land as early as the 1870s. Hamshire was on the Gulf and Interstate Railway with a post office being established there in 1897. A townsite plat was filed in 1911 by Theodore F. Koch. Another major land dealer, Herbert Roedenbeck, subdivided additional land south of the railroad later that year, giving the subdivision the name "Hamshire Gardens". Although there was interest shown by local rice farmers, Hamshire had only fifty inhabitants as of 1928. The Fannett (1927) and Stowell (1941) oil fields discovery initiated new development in western Jefferson County. [ [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/HH/hlh19.html Handbook of Texas Online - HAMSHIRE, TX ] ] As of 1940, the population in Hamshire had grown to 200. Natural gas production at the Hamshire field also continued to be of major importance to the community's economy through the 1980s. By 1985 the community had an estimated 350 residents and twenty-two businesses. In 1990 the population remained an estimated 350.

In 1961, the Hamshire Independent School District was combined with that of neighboring Fannett, forming the Hamshire-Fannett Independent School District which currently serves area students.

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