Double Bayou is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Chambers County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. According to the

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, the community had a population of 400 in 2000. It is located within the

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metropolitan area.

History

In 1847, James Jackson established a ranch in the region. The Jackson ranch was enclosed at an early period, even though the majority of operations of this kind operated on the open range. At Double Bayou, the local general store—founded by John Jackson before 1900—acted as the hub of the community. The region's widely dispersed residents also had gathering places in the form of a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

and

sugar cane mill A sugar cane mill is a factory that processes sugar cane to produce raw sugar or plantation white sugar. Some sugar mills are situated next to a back-end refinery, that turns raw sugar into (refined) white sugar. The term is also used to refer ...

. Post offices at Double Bayou were open from 1860 to 1866 and again from 1876 to 1919. Boats continued far into the twentieth century to serve as the area's principal mode of transportation, sailing on Trinity Bay and Double Bayou. Like with many other communities of Texas' higher coastal prairies, the people of Double Bayou suffered greatly from the floods that accompanied the hurricane of 1915. In the 1930s, the population of the remote rural area, which was predominantly black, was believed to be between 150 and 300. In the middle of the 1970s, the Double Bayou hamlet was identified on maps by several homes and churches. In 1981, 26,136 tons were handled by the Double Bayou port. 400 people were living in the community as of 1990 and 2000. James Jackson's grandson, Ralph Semmes Jackson, was born here in the early 1900s and was the author of ''Home on the Double Bayou''. His brother, Guy Cade, became an early conservationist and

county judge The term county judge is applied as a descriptor, sometimes as a title, for a person who presides over a county court. In most cases, such as in Northern Ireland and the Victorian County Courts, a county judge is a judicial officer with civi ...

. Besides the Galveston Hurricane, several other storms struck Double Bayou, resulting in the loss of cattle one winter. It is also the home of a

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for Dance, dancing, but usually refers to a specific type of twentieth-century venue, with dance clubs (nightclubs) becoming more popular towards the end of the century. The palais de danse was a term ap ...

Geography

Double Bayou is located between the two forks of the Double Bayou and just north of the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 1985 and

562 __NOTOC__ Year 562 ( DLXII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 562 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe ...

, southwest of Beaumont in west-central Chambers County.

Education

Double Bayou had its own school in the 1970s. Today, the Anahuac Independent School District operates schools in the area.

Notable people

Pete Mayes Pete Mayes (born Floyd Davis Mayes, March 21, 1938 – December 16, 2008) was an American Texas blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was variously known as Texas Pete Mayes and T-Bone Man (because his guitar playing resembled that of his h ...

Texas blues Texas blues is blues music from Texas. As a regional style, its original form was characterized by jazz and swing influences. Later examples are often closer to blues rock and Southern rock. History Texas blues began to appear in the early 1900 ...

singer, was born in Double Bayou and played at the local dance hall. * Frank Sterling, oil industry businessman, grew up in Double Bayou."Ross Sterling, Texan" University of Texas Press 2007; pp 5–10.

References

{{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Chambers County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas Greater Houston Galveston Bay Area