Tomball, Texas

Everything Tomball is known for

3 songs mention this city 6 artists from here

Tomball, Texas, a city less than 30 miles northwest of Houston, is known for its small-town charm and rich history as a railroad hub. While not widely recognized as a music mecca, Tomball has real country music roots: Eli Young Band frontman Mike Eli grew up here and graduated from Tomball High School, and singer-songwriter Michael Dean Pierce also calls the town home.

One song in our collection, "Los Coocos" by Michael Dean Pierce, specifically mentions Tomball. The city also hosts various events, including annual festivals and parades, with some featuring live music.

Music in Tomball

Songs About Tomball

Smallest Honktonk in Texas
Michael Dean Pierce
55%
La parranda Tomball Tx
La Milla 77
55%
Never Comin' Back
Flatland Cavalry
40%

Artists From Tomball

E
Eli Young Band
country
L
Logan Jahnke
country
M
Michael Dean Pierce
country
E
Eli Moore Band
country
T
The East Main Band
country
M
Mississippi Smile
country

Rivers & Roads in Song near Tomball

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Tomball.

Interstate 45 8 songs US Route 90 9 songs Interstate 10 36 songs U.S. Route 59 9 songs Brazos River 42 songs

History of Tomball

Oil Town U.S.A. -- Free Gas, and No Cemetery RoadyGoat

1933

In May of 1933 an oil well came in west of town on J.F.W. Kob's land, and quiet little Tomball turned into a boomtown almost overnight. The town rushed to incorporate that July, partly to keep Houston from swallowing the new field, with a population of just 665. Most families still relied on private wells, wood heaters, kerosene stoves and outdoor toilets; the earliest public water came from the railroad's water tank. Then in 1935 Tomball cut a remarkable deal with the Humble Oil and Refining Company, later Exxon. In exchange for the right to drill inside the city, Humble agreed to install water and gas lines and supply the town with both at no charge. By the local history's account, Humble was permitted around twenty-five wells, drilled a roughly 700-foot water well, and piped residue gas from its nearby processing plant straight into Tomball homes. Families who had cooked with kerosene and heated with wood could suddenly turn on a gas stove with no monthly bill. Two things ended at two different times. Humble's company camp, the colony that housed its own oilfield workers, was phased out in the mid-1950s, and the last camp house was moved into town in 1957, closing the old water connection that had served it. But the town-wide free gas kept flowing far longer, all the way until 1988. At its height, Ripley's Believe It or Not called Tomball the only town in America with free gas, free water, and no cemetery.

The Free Gas Came From a Cap of Trapped Pressure RoadyGoat

1933

For more than fifty years, Tomball never paid a gas bill, which is how it earned the nickname Oil Town U.S.A. In 1935, two years after Humble Oil struck it big here, the company cut a deal: free natural gas and free water for residents in exchange for the right to drill inside the city limits. Ripley's Believe It or Not even printed Tomball as the only town in America with free gas, free water and no cemetery. Here is the science behind the free gas. When the discovery well, the Kobs Number One, reached about five thousand feet in 1933, it did not just find oil, it found oil with a gas cap sitting on top of it. Underground, oil and gas separate by weight like oil and vinegar in a bottle: the lighter natural gas floats to the very top of the trap and presses against the sealing rock above, with the oil pooled below. At Kobs Number One there was a twenty-five-foot column of oil beneath that cap of gas. That gas comes up almost for free, since it is the pressure riding on top of the oil the company actually wanted, so piping it to a few hundred homes cost almost nothing. It lasted until 1988. The contract was written for ninety years, but when Exxon sold its share of the field that year, the free gas ended decades early. By then the field had given up more than a hundred million barrels of oil. (Sources: TSHA Handbook of Texas; Corsicana Daily Sun.)

The Salt That Made the Oil, and Won't Stop Moving RoadyGoat

-160000000

The oil under Tomball is here because of salt, salt that is still slowly moving under your tires. Go back roughly a hundred and sixty million years. A young Gulf of Mexico was a shallow, baking sea that dried out and left behind a thick layer of salt, the Louann Salt. Then, for millions of years, rivers buried it under thousands of feet of sand and mud. Here is the strange part: salt under that kind of weight does not just sit there. Salt flows. Under enough pressure it behaves like very slow plastic, and wherever the rock above has a weak spot, the salt squeezes up through it like toothpaste through a cracked cap. As it rises it bends the rock layers above into a dome, and a dome is a trap, because oil and gas drifting through the rock get caught under the arch and cannot escape. That is exactly what happened at Tomball. Geologists running gravity surveys here in 1928 got a hint of a deep salt feature, and later, bouncing sound waves off the layers underground, they could see the buried dome plainly. Drill the top of it, and you hit oil. That same slow dance of rising salt built dozens of the oil fields strung along the Texas coast. One buried Jurassic sea, still shaping the ground beneath a Texas town. (Sources: USGS; geology.com.)

Bruner, Clifton Lafayette [Cliff]

1937

Clifton Lafayette (Cliff) Bruner, western swing fiddler and bandleader, was born in Texas City on April 25, 1915. Bruner's father worked as a longshoreman on the Houston docks but dreamed of being a farmer. Periodically he would take his dock money and lease land or sharecrop. On one such venture, when Cliff was five years old, the family moved to Arkansas. While playing in their farmhouse, Cliff found a fiddle. As he recalled later, "I got the thing out and I was sawing on it and my grandmother, who was living with us at the time, said, 'That sounds like a tune that I've heard before.'…That's when I started playing. I was playing fiddle before I could talk good." The Arkansas farm eventually failed, and the family moved to Tomball, Texas. Bruner's playing ability led him to perform for family and friends. Like many western swing violinists from a rural background, Bruner learned to play by listening, watching, and improvising. The only formal music training he ever received was from a Texas-Mexican musician who spoke no English and played only Mexican music. Through this training, however, Bruner was exposed to one of the distinctive threads of Texas musical culture woven into Texas jazz. While still in school, Bruner played at local dances and eventually toured with Doc Scott's medicine show. In 1935 he joined Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies , a swing band based in Fort Worth. Brown was the first Texas bandleader to use twin fiddlers. He paired Bruner with Cecil Brower , and this duo became the trademark sound of Brown's music. Bruner recorded forty-eight sides with the Brownies on the Decca label. The band's promising future ended with Brown's untimely death in 1936, whereupon Bruner moved to Houston and formed his own band, the Texas Wanderers. Musicians who played with this band included steel guitarist Bob Dunn , electric mandolinist Leo Raley, fiddler J. R. Chatwell , guitarist and vocalist Dickie McBride, and country boogie pianist Moon Mullican . The band became one of the most popular and successful Texas Gulf Coast ensembles. It broadcast regularly on radio station KXYZ in Houston, and later on KFDM in Beaumont. Between 1937 and 1941, in numerous recording for Decca Records, the Wanderers turned out such hits as a version of Floyd Tillman 's "It Makes No Difference Now" and the first truck-driving song, Ted Daffan's "Truck Driver's Blues," with vocals by Bruner and Mullican. During his long career, Bruner formed several bands, most called the Texas Wanderers. He also played with other groups, including those of W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel and Jimmie Davis, who used their bands to promote their political campaigns. In the 1950s, due to his wife Ruth's illness, Bruner dissolved the Wanderers and sought a more stable occupation in the insurance business. The Bruners were living in Amarillo when Ruth died. Left with two small children to raise, Bruner returned to Houston, married a second woman named Ruth, and continued to work in his own insurance company. He pursued music on the side, playing on weekends with local musicians. He died of cancer on August 25, 2000, and was survived by his wife, six daughters, seventeen grandchildren, sixteen great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren. Bruner was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame and the Western Swing Society Hall of Fame, as well as the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame .

Tsha Handbook →

Tomball, TX

1933

Tomball, Harris County's northernmost town, is thirty miles north of downtown Houston. It is at a higher elevation than most of Harris County and encompasses nine square miles. Before 1850 the area was the site of a farming community on a land grant given to the heirs of William Hurd in 1838. The settlement was named Peck, after a prominent civil engineer, in early 1907 and was one of forty train stations between Fort Worth and Galveston on the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway. Peck had a freight terminal, a telegraph office, a water station, two section houses, stock pens with water and chutes, and a five-stall roundhouse. These facilities made the settlement an agricultural trade center for the area. On December 2, 1907, Peck was renamed Tomball in honor of Thomas Henry Ball , who had been instrumental in routing the railroad to the community. From 1907 to 1933 the people of Tomball were primarily involved in farming and ranching activities. A post office began in 1908. The town acquired its first school in 1908 and in 1913 its first electric lights and telephone service. In 1914 Tomball had a population of 350, a bank, a blacksmith, several stores, six hotels, and two cotton gins. Charles F. Hoffman was an early settler who operated the first general store, and J. J. Trichel was postmaster. In 1933 Tomball became a boomtown when, on May 27, drillers struck oil west of town on the property of J. F. W. Kob. In 1935 the original contract negotiated between Tomball and the Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company, U.S.A. ) gave free water and natural gas to Tomball residents for ninety years in exchange for drilling rights within the city limits. On July 6, 1933, Tomball, popularly known as "Oil Town U.S.A.," was incorporated with a population of 665. With the discovery of oil, however, this figure tripled. Soon there were twenty-five to thirty oil and gas companies producing within a five-mile radius of Tomball. Humble built camps, housing developments, and recreation facilities for its workers. The town was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not as being the only city with free gas and water and no cemetery. In 1960 the population was 1,173, and by 1984 it was estimated at 5,000. Tomball has a mayor-council form of city government , a police department, and a volunteer fire department. Most of the light industry in the city supported the oil and gas industry , agriculture, and the building trades. A community college, Tomball College, opened in 1988. In 1990 the town's population was 6,370. A museum complex established by the Spring Creek County Historical Association included historical homes, a farm museum, and the Trinity Evangelical Church. Throughout the 1990s Tomball continued to grow with the addition of many retail and computer-related businesses. The town also served as a bedroom community for Houston commuters. In 2002 Tomball had a population of 9,544 and more than 1,700 businesses.

Tsha Handbook →

Oklahoma Cemetery

1890

Oral tradition says that when a Mr. Sanders told a Mr. Leslie he was moving to Oklahoma, but he moved near here instead, the settlement was named "Oklahoma." George W. Snook (1849-1939) and Bonnie Jerome Goodson Snook (1863-1939) were the first to set aside an acre here for a burial ground when their young daughter, Jessie Snook (1890-1894), became ill and died. A tree uprooted by a storm was the last place she had visited so they buried her nearby. The girl's uncle, John Henry Goodson (1867-1958), also donated an acre to this site in 1903. It doubled in size since then, remaining a chronicle of the families of this area of Montgomery County. Historic Texas Cemetery - 2001

Historical Marker → · 4.3 mi away

Pillot Family

1837

Frenchman Claude Nicholas Pillot (1793-1862) came to this area with his family in 1837. He and his son Eugene (1820-1896) worked in the timber business and were active in the community, serving as officials in the short-lived Spring Creek County. The Willow settlement formed around the Pillot family and other French settlers. The Pillots owned much of the land in the area and remained active in the community. A successful lumberman, Eugene also became a prominent builder in Houston, maintaining homes both in the Willow Creek area and in the city. His 1860 home was moved to this site in 1965 to serve as a reminder of the prosperous Pillot family and its contributions. (2004)

Historical Marker →

Griffin Memorial House

1860

Built about 1860 by Eugene Pillot, one of the sons of Claude Nicholas Pillot, early Harris County settler. Taught trade by his father, Eugene Pillot became an outstanding builder in Texas coastal area. Original site of this house (near Atascosita Trail route) was south of Willow Creek, where General Sam Houston often stopped as a guest. Owned by family of John B. Griffin from 1920 to 1965. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969

Historical Marker →

Mueschke Road & the Mueschke Homestead

1851

In 1851, German immigrant Gustov Mueschke settled about 80 acres at what is now Mueschke Road and FM 2920 in Rosehill. Because reaching Houston meant a long detour west through Waller, he donated land and rallied his neighbors and the county to build a dirt road south to US 290, the route to Houston; it still carries his name. His son Fritz's gray homestead, since painted blue, still stands near the corner.

Curated → · 7.1 mi away

Things to Do in Tomball

historical 5.7 mi away
Tomball ISD Stadium

A $35 million high school football cathedral — because in Texas the stadium is the town square. Friday night lights at their finest.
food 1.4 mi away
Goodson's Cafe

Tomball cafe on State Highway 249, north of Houston. Ella Goodson took over the place in 1954, and the chicken-fried steak here has been called the best in…
quirky 10.4 mi away
Court Amber Trail Cottage

A tidy blue cottage tucked into a Cypress subdivision. Proof that charm doesn't need acreage.
quirky 22.6 mi away
Virgin Mary Oak Tree

An oak tree in the Garden Oaks neighborhood where passersby report seeing the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the bark and leave flowers and religious…
day trip
Day Trip tp Tomball 🚂 (FULL EPISODE) S6 E13

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Sports in Tomball

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Baseball · 2024

Tomball Cougars — 2024 UIL 6A Baseball State Champions

Most recent: 2024 6A

Tomball High School, a Class 6A powerhouse in Texas baseball, has firmly established its place in the state's athletic landscape. The Cougars notably secured a UIL State Championship in 2024, showcasing their consistent excellence on the diamond. This achievement highlights the program's dedication and skill within one of the state's most competitive classifications.

The tradition of baseball success at Tomball extends to its alumni, with several former players advancing to professional or major collegiate levels. Among these are Drake Britton and Troy Patton, who represent the caliber of talent fostered within the Tomball High School baseball program. The community takes pride in the athletic achievements and the continued development of its student-athletes.

State titles
2024
Most recent
2024
Class
6A
Key Players
  • Drake Britton — , baseball player for the Boston Red Sox
  • Troy Patton — , baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles
The moment

The 2024 Class 6A UIL State Championship stands as a significant moment for Tomball High School baseball.

Sources: Wikipedia · UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Tomball

637 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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