Hankamer is an unincorporated populated place in northern 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 525 in 2000. It is located within the

Greater Houston Greater Houston, designated by the Office of Management and Budget, United States Office of Management and Budget as Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, is the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fifth-most populous metropolitan statistical ...

metro area.

Historical development

I. A. Hankamer, a pioneer settler, inspired the name. The Hankamer-Stowell Canal Company (also known as the Farmers Canal Company) started irrigating a lot of

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

in Chambers County in 1900, which drastically changed the lives of the locals. Four years later, the post office in Hankamer was opened. However, the population stayed modest until 1929 when the Hankamer oilfield in nearby

Liberty County Liberty County is the name of four counties in the United States: * Liberty County, Florida * Liberty County, Georgia * Liberty County, Montana * Liberty County, Texas Liberty County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 ...

was discovered. Hankamer had four companies and 200 residents by the middle of the 1930s. More jobs were created by the R. H. Harlow

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

. New oil and gas resources were discovered in the Hankamer area as a result of later prospecting, but in 1970, the population of this widely dispersed settlement was estimated to be fewer than 200. In 1983, Hankamer inhabitants were served by six enterprises. 189 people were living there in 1990 and 525 in 2000. I.A. Hankamer served as postmaster. He was a son of settler John William Hankamer (1834 - 1907), who arrived in Texas in 1845 with his brothers Charles and Frederick, mother Johannette, and stepfather John Stengler, who sailed on the Harriet from

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

to Galveston. They became citizens of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

. The Hankamers and Stenglers had planned to settle in the New Braunfels - Fredericksburg area, but news of Indian trouble prompted them to choose the area north of Anahuac.Chambers County - A Pictorial History by Margaret Henson and Kevin Ladd A grandson of I. A. Hankamer currently resides in his old house at Hankamer.

Geography

Hankamer is located at the intersection of

Texas State Highway 61 State Highway 61 (SH 61) is a state highway in southeast Texas. It connects Anahuac in Chambers County to Devers in Liberty County. Route description The southern terminus of SH 61 is in Anahuac, along Washington Avenue; state maintenance ...

and Farm to Market Road 1663, southwest of Beaumont in northern Chambers County.

Education

Anahuac Independent School District operates schools in the area.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Chambers County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas Greater Houston