The railroad arrived in this area, first called Prairie Switch, in 1873. The Aldine Post Office was established in 1896; twenty-five to thirty families, most of Swedish descent, settled on Aldine's fertile land. Here they grew such products as Satsuma oranges, pears and Magnolia figs. In 1900 developer E.C. Robertson and his partner, F.W. Colby of Kansas, began to market parcels of land to out-of-state speculators, many of whom bought tracts sight unseen. A Presbyterian Church was organized from a Union Sabbath School in 1902, and the town began to grow. It soon boasted a hotel and general store, a two-room schoolhouse erected on this site in 1910, and a cemetery deeded for community use in 1911.

Aldine resident J.C. Carpenter operated a small fig cannery until 1914 or 1915 when the Carpenter Fig Company opened a cannery nearby. Reportedly one of the largest fig preserving plants in the U.S., it employed twenty-five to thirty people during the canning season. The fig industry died out from 1918 to 1920 because of freezes, blight and lack of sugar during World War I.

Dairy farms replaced fruit farms and the Magnolia Oil Company established a large crude oil pumping station in Aldine in 1923. The Aldine Railroad Depot shut down in 1931 or 1932, and the post office closed in January 1935. The community turned to automobiles for transportation. Farmers began marketing their wares in Houston. The town of Aldine gradually declined. In 1932 four area common school districts joined to form the Aldine Independent School District. Now a part of the metropolis of Houston, the townsite of Aldine remains only in the annals of Texas history.

The first permanent settlers in this area were Dr. John Magee and his wife, Alief, who came from Ellis County in 1896. The community originally was known as Dairy, but was renamed in 1897 for Mrs. Magee, the town's first postmistress. By 1899, there was a small but growing community here, with most families involved in ranching and farming. In 1900, the need for a cemetery became evident, and this property was deeded for use as a graveyard by Francis I. Meston to Dr. John Magee, Newton Gentry, and Hardy Price. Many of the early settlers are buried here, including Alief Magee (1851-1899) and cotton farmer John D. Cook (1867-1954). About one-half of the approximately 100 graves are those of babies, pointing to the hardships resulting from childbirth and infant diseases.

The 1900 hurricane caused much property damage in Alief, and many families became discouraged and left the community. Most of them later returned to help fight the problem of area flooding, including organization of the first Harris County Flood Control District.

Although little evidence of the original community remains, the Alief Cemetery stands as a reminder of its pioneer heritage. The graves are maintained by the Alief Cemetery Historical Association.

This school originated as Madison Academy, founded in 1886 in Madisonville by John Hodges Allen (1854-1920), an educator from Mississippi. When his brother Rivers O. Allen (1865-1925) joined him in 1896, the institution became Allen Academy, a private boarding school for boys. During the summer of 1899, the Allens moved the school to Bryan.

In the early years of the 20th Century, enrollment steadily increased. The campus was enlarged and new buildings erected to accommodate the students. During World War I, military training was introduced. In 1925 John Allen's son Nat Burtis Allen (1892-1946) became director of the school. During his tenure, the academy continued to grow and gained national recognition. When he died in 1946, the campus contained over 300 acres, including a farm and dairy. His son Nat Burtis Allen, Jr. (1919-1973) guided the institution until 1973 and led in establishing broader curriculum.

Allen Academy is the oldest accredited, non-sectarian preparatory school for boys operating in Texas. Its graduates include leaders in government and business. Today the institution is coeducational and offers a broad range of scholastic programs for boarding and day students.

In 1892 Illinois investors bought land here, near a pre-Civil War railroad line, and platted the town of Almeda. With its mild climate, the town was marketed as a citrus farming community, but unusually severe freezes caused many farmers to turn to dairy production by the 1920s. Almeda became a prosperous dairy farming town. In 1893 residents founded a school district that served children from parts of three counties. Although Almeda became part of the city of Houston in 1959, it remains a part of local history.

Traveling west from the Gulf of Mexico the land rises gradually and becomes Alta Loma (Spanish for high land) in this area of Galveston County. In 1893 the Alta Loma Investment and Improvement Company platted a townsite here along a Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad line built in the late 1870s.

The company developed water, electric, and telephone utility systems and helped establish churches, a depot, hotel, lumber company, general store, school, and a post office. Many of Alta Loma's new residents engaged in the farm production of pears, plums, figs, strawberries, grapes, and other fruits and vegetables.

The school, depot, and businesses throughout Alta Loma were damaged in the 1900 storm. The town rebuilt and witnessed a period of rapid growth fueled by truck farming and a burgeoning dairy industry. Alta Loma and the nearby towns of Algoa and Arcadia formed the Santa Fe Consolidated School District in 1928.

In the 1930s many Alta Lomans left farming for jobs in Texas City's burgeoning petroleum industry. The town continued to grow and in 1966 the Alta Loma Business Association was formed. Alta Loma and its neighboring community, Arcadia, officially merged in 1978 to form the incorporated city of Santa Fe.

In 1911 the Texas Legislature passed a law calling for the establishment of state institutions for the treatment of tuberculosis. Founded across the highway in 1912, the Anti-Tuberculosis Colony No.1 opened with facilities for 57 patients on a 330-acre tract of land. The Tuberculosis Nursing School was founded here in 1915, and by 1961 had graduated 500 male and female nurses. The colony developed into a self-sustaining community with an average population of 2,000. Housed in 36 buildings on 992 acres of land, the institution included a post office, library, public school, power plant, dairy, vegetable garden, bakery and butcher shops. It was renamed the State Sanatorium in 1919. Most patients were in residence for nine months. At its height the Sanatorium proved a treatment capacity for 950 adults and 250 children. The institution was renamed McKnight State Tuberculosis Hospital in 1955 in honor of Dr. J.B. McKnight, superintendent from 1914 to 1950. The advent of anti-tubercular drugs and thoracic surgery altered the treatment of tuberculosis and eventually the institution closed in 1971. Fifty thousand adults and 5,000 children received treatment here.

Originally called Hutchins City. Promoted by Santa Fe Rwy.

Named for Judge William Pitt Ballinger (1825-1888), railroad attorney and townsite official. Distinguished Texas statesmen, veteran of the Mexican War. In the Civil War helped establish defenses of Galveston, served as Confederate receiver of enemy aliens property, was sent to negotiate peace for Texas.

Ballinger is county seat, and farm-ranch center. Industries include dairying, meat products, leather goods manufacturing. Has annual rodeo, livestock and quarterhorse shows.

In 1923 Beauford H. Jester (1893-1949) and his wife, Mabel (Buchanan), built this colonial revival home on land that had been his family's dairy farm. A Corsicana attorney, Jester later served as chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, as director of the State Bar, and as a member of the Texas Railroad Commission. Elected governor of the state in 1946, he was the first governor to die in office. During his administration he continued to maintain this home.

German native Charles (Carl) August Beck (1810-1885) purchased forty acres at this site in 1862. Ten years later he built this Greek Revival home as a wedding gift for his son Charles Theodore Beck (b. 1846). This house served as the headquarters for their cattle ranch which eventually grew to about 25,000 acres. In 1923 it became the center of Arthur Yariger's dairy business and has remained in the Yariger Family since that date.

One of most historic towns in county. Named following the drouth of 1827, when pioneers of Stephen F. Austin's colony came to this fertile region to obtain corn. They called it "Goin down into Egypt for corn", after biblical passage. Noted patriots were among earliest settlers: Eli Mercer, one of first sugar producers in Texas; and W.J.E. Heard, leader of citizen soldiers. Others were dairy king Gail Borden; William Menefee, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence; and Maj. Andrew Northington, stagecoach operator and surveyor.