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History
in a Sea Shell
In 1824 the site was granted to Joseph H. Polley and Samuel Chance and was
first called Chance’s Prairie. Three miles S of Chance’s Prairie was Old
Ocean Lake. William B. Sweeny, the namesake of Sweeny, Texas arrived in the county
in 1832. He and his family and a huge number of slaves (estimated at 250) settled
on land adjoining Polley and Chance's grant. Sweeny bought over 2,300 acres of
land from the partners for less than $1 an acre.
After the Civil War,
a post office was set up in the John Sweeny’s plantation’s commissary. Despite
the number of people in the region, Chance's Prairie had only 18 residents in
1880. In the mid 1930s oil was discovered and a federal refinery was built. It
was called Old Ocean, and the name was adopted by the community in 1936.
After WWII the refinery
closed.
By 1947 the population had risen to 800 residents and in the mid
1960s it surpassed 1,000, declining to 900 by the early 1970s. The figure of 915
residents has been used from the 1970s through the 2000 census. |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us. | |
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