Liberty County was created in 1836
(Organized in 1837) and as an Original
County. Liberty County was named for its first (and current) county seat. The County Seat is Liberty. The Official County website is located at http://www.co.liberty.tx.us. See also Extended History for more historical details.
The town of Liberty served as the seat of government for the municipality of Liberty, one of 23 territories in Texas established by Mexico in the 1830s. The first courthouse was erected here in 1831 and was made of hewn logs. Municipalities were converted into counties in 1836 when Texas won independence from Mexico; Liberty became the county seat of Liberty County. Constructed in 1840, the second courthouse was a one-story frame house, with split cypress boards. A third courthouse, a two-story frame structure, was built on this Square in the mid-1840s and measured 32 feet by 40 feet. The first floor served as the courtroom. Liberty County's fourth courthouse, completed by 1857, was fabricated of brick and financed primarily from the sale of land owned by the town of Liberty. Fire destroyed that courthouse in 1872. the fifth courthouse, also constructed of brick, was completed in 1877 but deteriorated rapidly and after only 18 years was condemned and removed from the Square. Members of Liberty's Masonic Lodge laid the cornerstone for the sixth courthouse in 1895. The three-story structure was a popular local gathering place. The seventh courthouse, built of Texas Cordova cream limestone was completed in 1931 and enlarged in 1957.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Liberty County Clerk has Court Records from 1874, Land Records from 1875 , Probate Records from 1873, Marriage Records from 1875 and Birth/Death Records from 1903 is located at 1923
Sam Houston St.,
Liberty, TX 77575; Telephone:
(936) 336-8071 . The County Clerk's Office is the record keeper of the county. The county records include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, brand registrations, DD214s (military discharges), land / real estate / property records, probate and civil filings.
Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Texas Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Texas Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Vital Records,1100 West 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756, Please allow up to approximately 6-8 weeks for processing of all type of certificates when ordered through the mail. They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: Birth records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present. For births that occurred within the past 75 years, copies can be requested only by the immediate family of the person whose name is on the birth certificate.
Cost: The cost of a birth record is $22.00. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $22.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Death Certificates: Death records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present.
For deaths that occurred in the past 25 years, copies can be requested only by immediate family members of the deceased.
Cost: The cost of a certified death certificate is $20.00 for the first copy and $3.00 for each additional copy issued at the same time for the same certificate. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $20.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Marriage & Divorce Certificates: Marriage Verifications from Jan 1966 and Divorce Verifications from Jan 1968. Certified copies of marriage licenses or divorce decrees are only available from the county clerk (marriage) or district clerk (divorce) in the county or district in which the event occurred. Marriage verification or divorce verification letters can now be ordered ELECTRONICALLY
Cost: $20 - Fee is for verification only.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Order In Person: The certificates may be ordered by coming into this office. If you want the copy the same day, our hours for same day service are 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Monday – Friday. The Texas Vital Statistics Office in Austin is located at 1100 W. 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756.
Order By Mail: Mail a check or money order (no cash) payable to the "Texas Vital Records " along with the necessary information to the following address: Texas Vital Records, Department of State Health Services, PO Box 12040,
Austin TX 78711-2040. Please include return address on envelope and application form.
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Research Death records In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of historical Texas newspaper articles about deaths. Search for local articles about an old family friend that died many years ago or a celebrity that committed suicide. Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information about the deceased.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29 - Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If you're unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu. These records can be searched by father's first and last names, mother's first and maiden names, year, county, and city. The certificates include the child and parents' full names, residence, occupations, age, time and date of the birth, and the name of the physician attending the birth.
Texas Death Certificates, 1890-1976 - These records are searchable by first and last name of the deceased, year, county, and city. A certificate may include the decedent's date, place, and cause of death; age; date of birth; last residence; and marital status. If known, it will also include occupation, birth place, parents' names, and place of burial. Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu.
Click Here to Search Texas Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Liberty County, Texas are 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. The Texas State Library holds microfilm editions for all of Texas' federal censuses. Although the 1850, 1860, and part of the 1870 mortality schedules have been published, all the original mortality schedules are at the Texas State Library and on microfilm The 1830 territorial census of Miller County, Arkansas, enumerates an area that is in today's Texas boundaries. The remaining 1890 population schedules which exist for Texas include: Ellis County (Justice Precinct 6, Mountain Peak, and Ovilla Precinct); Hood County (Precinct 5); Rusk County (No. 6 and Justice Precinct No. 7); Trinity County (town of Trinity and Justice Precinct 2); and Kaufman County (Kaufman). Although Greer County in present-day Oklahoma functioned as part of Texas between 1886 and 1896, the 1890 census for this county was enumerated under Oklahoma Territory.
Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Liberty County, Texas are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms
Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Arkansas and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps.
Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Maps. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Texas Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Texas (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Texas tax records constitute one of the most complete sets of available records generated at the county level (by the Commissioners Court) because these documents are maintained by the state. These lists may only include approximately sixty percent of eligible males over the age of twenty-one. Persons exempted from taxes included native Americans, "idiots," "incompetents," and those exempted because of age. This final category of exemptions varied over time. Years without an older age exemption were 1840 and 1862-70. Between 1841-44 exemptions began at forty-five years; in 1845 and from 1850-61 the upward age was set at fifty years. In 1837, 1848, and 1849 the limit was established as fifty-five, and in 1846-7, and 1871 the upward limit was set at sixty years.
Texas Ad Valorem (poll, personal, and real property) tax records for 1836 through 1976 are available in microfilm at the Texas State Library from the date of respective county organization; these are arranged by county and date and are somewhat alphabetized within each division. Microfilm copies are housed in the Genealogy Section. Tax lists for the various counties from creation to 1901 may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Tax records through 1901-1947 are readily accessible, but not on interlibrary loan. Those for 1948 through 1976 can be obtained upon request.
Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Liberty County Historical Commission, P.O. Box 23, Liberty, TX 77575
Texas State Library and Archives Commission, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927 Holdings under the auspices of the Texas State Library are divided. Most important for genealogical research are the Texas State Archives with its Local Records Department, the Records Management Division, and the Information Services Division, which includes a Genealogy Section and a Reference Department.
The Genealogy Section maintains vertical ties that contain notes, clippings, pamphlets, and correspondence on Texas families. These files may be accessed in person, by phone (512-463-5463, forty-five minute limit), or through correspondence.
Texas Historical Commision The Texas Historical Commission (THC) is the state agency for historic preservation. THC staff consults with citizens and organizations to preserve Texas' architectural, archeological and cultural landmarks. The agency is recognized nationally for its preservation programs.
Texas Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Texas Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
During Texas's colonization period Roman Catholics were the most numerous, but early citizens included those representing other religious faiths such as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Christian or Disciples of Christ.
Many cemetery records have been collected and transcribed, including the largest of which is multi-volumes compilation by the DAR and two volumes for Peters Colonists and descendants. The DAR collection, also microfilmed, is available at the Texas State Library and through the FHL.
Some Texas county historical and genealogical societies have published local cemetery and/funeral home records. These are normally available for purchase through the respective society. Two references can help determine which cemeteries have been recorded: Kim Parsons', A Reference to Texas Cemetery Records (Humble, Tex.: by author, 1988), arranged by county; and Sharry Crofford-Gould's, Texas Cemetery Inscriptions: A Source Index (San Antonio, Tex.: Limited Editions, 1977).
Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Texas obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Texas newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Texas.
Click Here to Search Texas Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Liberty County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Liberty County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Texas Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
The future Liberty County was first inhabited by prehistoric Indians, whose artifacts can be found at various sites including those of Orcoquisac Indian villages. The Jamison and Daniel sites, located opposite each other on the margins of the Trinity about three miles north of Liberty, have revealed mass burials, arrow points, pottery, and other artifacts dating to 1000 B.C. or earlier, as has a site near Dayton. During most of the eighteenth century, the area was contested by French interests seeking to expand from Louisiana to the east and Spanish interests from the west and south. Though the Spanish crown granted Pánfilo de Narváez the privilege to colonize the lands between the Rio Grande and the cape of Florida in 1526, Karankawa Indians, including Coapites and related groups, were the sole occupants of the future Liberty County until the 1740s. Rumors of French exploration on the Texas coast by Joseph Blancpain and others prompted the Spanish to send Joaquín de Orobio y Basterra on an exploratory expedition in 1748, and fears of French intrusion continued. The Spanish established Nuestra Señora de la Luz Mission and San Agustín de Ahumada Presidio in 1756; the mission was for the Akokisa and Bidai Indians. Spanish maps in 1757 showed the Atascosito settlement and a Spanish military road known as the Atascosito Road, which crossed the Trinity near the present site of Liberty. Ten years later the Marqués de Rubí included the area in his tour of inspection, but parts of the mission were destroyed by a storm in 1766 and the presidio was abandoned in 1772. According to some sources, a trading-post settlement named Arkokisa or Arkosisa (variants of Akokisa) existed from roughly 1770 to 1790 near what later became the townsite of Liberty.
The Louisiana Purchase altered the balance of power between the Spanish and the French in 1803, and Spanish efforts to discourage American immigration to Texas increased. Nonetheless, the open land attracted numerous immigrants from Louisiana, Mississippi, and the adjoining states. In 1818 Charles F. A. Lallemand and Antoine Rigaud made an unsuccessful attempt to colonize Bonapartist refugees at Champ d'Asile, near the site of present Liberty. Coushatta Indians, who arrived in Texas from Alabama around 1807 and were later placed on an East Texas reservation, inhabited the east bank of the Trinity during this period (see ALABAMA-COUSHATTA INDIANS). After Mexico won her independence from Spain, more American settlers came in response to promised grants of land, and much of what later became Liberty County and adjacent counties soon were part of an empresario grant made to Joseph B. Vehlein in 1826 and transferred to the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company in 1830. A new Atascosito District developed in Mexican Texas when settlers established an independent colony in 1826. Local administration of the area was conducted at Atascosito until 1831. In the battle for allegiance, some residents of the Liberty area supported the Mexican government and participated in quelling the Fredonian Rebellion. But the Law of April 6, 1830, which prohibited further American immigration, pushed settlers too far. When the Mexican government failed to recognize titles given by the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, settlers and squatters in the coastal area petitioned the commander-in-chief of Coahuila and Texas for land titles and organization of a local government. In 1831 land commissioner José Francisco Madero organized a municipality known as Villa de la Santísima Trinidad de la Libertad, which embraced most of Southeast Texas; it was bounded on the east by the Sabine River, on the west by the San Jacinto, by Nacogdoches Municipality on the north, and by the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Hugh B. Johnston served as alcalde. The new seat of government, called Liberty by the Anglo-Americans, was located about three miles southwest of old Atascosito. In activities that led to the Anahuac disturbances of 1832, John Davis Bradburn, commander of the fort at Anahuac, attempted to annul the act, arrested Madero and the land commissioners who had given titles in the Liberty area, and attempted to dissolve the municipality. Some settlers pledged loyalty to Antonio López de Santa Anna in the Turtle Bayou Resolutions. Nonetheless, the territory between the San Jacinto and Sabine rivers continued to be known thereafter as Liberty and functioned as a municipality.
As events began to foreshadow the Texas Revolution, Augustine B. Hardin, Pierre J. Menard, Henry W. Millard, Claiborne West, and Hugh B. Johnston represented the area at the Consultation. By 1835, despite governmental difficulties and a lack of land titles, the municipality's population increased to more than 1,000. Andrew Briscoe's Liberty Volunteers were organized in 1835 and later fought at the battle of Concepción and the siege of Bexar. Soldiers from Liberty County formed the Third Infantry Company, Second Regiment, under William M. Logan; this unit fought along with other men from the county at the battle of San Jacinto. Mexican prisoners captured at San Jacinto were sent to Liberty before release. Liberty County, formed and organized in 1836 in the new Republic of Texas, originally included all of the future Tyler County and parts of what later became Hardin, Chambers, San Jacinto, and Polk counties. Liberty was named county seat and incorporated in 1837. Sam Houston maintained two homes in the area and purchased more than 20,000 acres of land within the county's original boundaries.
Antebellum Liberty County was characterized by plantations along the Trinity that raised cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, indigo, grains, and vegetables. Lumber mills were in operation, and Liberty shipped cotton, hides, Indian corn, cattle, and lumber down the Trinity. The county economy received a further boost in 1840 when James Taylor White established the cattle industry with an extensive ranch at Turtle Bayou in what is now Chambers County. Cattle drives began moving eastward to Louisiana, and some cattlemen sold their animals to a meatpacking plant at Liberty Landing, operated by the English firm Jones and Company. Cattle numbered 14,058 in 1840 and 45,670 in 1850. Wealthy aristocratic Creole planters from Louisiana arrived in Liberty County with their slaves in 1845, and by 1850 the county population had grown to 2,522. Sawmills made the lumber industry the county's first major industry. River travel by steamboat flourished from 1838 to 1878. Early attempts to build a railroad from Liberty to Livingston were interrupted by the Civil War. Efforts to extend the navigable portion of the Trinity began in 1852 and continued spasmodically thereafter. Only the Texas and New Orleans Railroad (later the Southern Pacific) from Houston via Liberty and Beaumont to Orange was in place by 1860.
Liberty County residents voted 422 to 10 for secession and contributed to several Confederate units in the Civil War. The Liberty Invincibles, organized in 1861, were later Company F of the Fifth Regiment of Texas Volunteers. The Moss Bluff Rebels, also organized in 1861, served mostly as cavalry Company F of Maj. J. B. Likens's battalion. Captains W. D. Davis and Edward Bradford Pickett commanded companies, while other groups served under S. G. Cleveland and Thomas Dudley Wooten. A militia company was organized to guard the home front.
After the war, many freedmen worked for their former masters or settled in the county and started small farms. The black population was 1,079 in 1860 and 1,975 in 1870. The Freedmen's Bureau operated in Liberty from 1866 until 1868, with Dr. J. Orville Shelby and A. H. Mayer serving as the bureau representatives for most of the period. Suffrage caused conflict during Reconstruction. Officials arrested and tried a Republican organizer for "exciting Negroes to acts of hostility to whites," and Republican voters in the county dropped from 255 in 1869 to 0 in 1873. The black population approached parity with the white in 1880, but declined thereafter to about a third of the county population in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1871 steamboat travel resumed when the Trinity River Navigation Company, with headquarters at Liberty, incorporated to run steamboats from that city to Galveston. United States government assistance for making the Trinity more navigable came after 1880, and by 1940 a total of 236 miles of waterway had been constructed. Nonetheless, railroad construction, which began largely after Reconstruction, caused a severe blow to the port of Liberty. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe (later the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe) crossed the northern part of the county through Cleveland, Romayor, Fuqua, and other former timber towns by 1900, and by 1907 ten miles of the proposed Trinity Valley and Northern line from Dayton to Cleveland had been completed. The Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western Railway (later the Missouri Pacific) built across the central part of the county through Eastgate, Kenefick, Sandune Station, Hardin, and Hull parallel to the Texas and New Orleans, and Ross S. Sterling's Dayton-Goose Creek line reached Dayton in 1917. Liberty County had twenty-two white schools in operation by 1880. The population remained nearly constant from 1870, when the figure of 4,414 included some residents of what became San Jacinto County that year, to 1890, when it numbered 4,230. In the next decade, however, it nearly doubled in size, reaching 8,102 in 1900 in an expansion that reflected important growth in the county's agriculture and industry. Much as they had become a center for Texas cattle production, Liberty County and the Atascosito District became a center of the Texas rice industry around 1900, when irrigation plants were developed at Stilton and White's Bayou and the Raywood Rice Company began promotion of rice culture. E. W. Boyt, for example, combined rice growing and cattle raising on a large spread in Liberty and Chambers counties.
Prospecting for oil began about 1901, chiefly in the southern part of the county. Daisetta and Hull became oil towns after a nearby field was discovered in 1918. Wells were brought in at Old River Lake by 1904. Others were opened at North Dayton, Esperson Dome, Moss Bluff, Davis Hill, and South Liberty in 1925 and Hankamer in 1929. Pipelines crossed the county. By 1990, oilfields in Liberty County had cumulatively produced almost 496 million barrels of oil, as well as significant amounts of natural gas. The county population increased steadily in the first half of the twentieth century, reaching 14,637 by 1920 and 24,541 by 1940. The number of farms increased from 1,001 in 1900 to an all-time high of 1,961 in 1940. Corn, rice, and cotton, the major crops, though fluctuating somewhat in relative importance, accounted for 85 to 92 percent of Liberty County agricultural revenue in the 1920s and 1930s. Livestock raising was also important. In 1930 swine raising peaked at 31,242 hogs, and in 1936 Liberty County was the leading hog county in the state. Hog production declined in the 1930s and recovered somewhat by 1940. Cattle raising held steady at some 30,000 head through 1950. Lumbering also remained an important county industry.
With its varied agriculture and resource industries, Liberty County was spared some of the worst effects of the agricultural fluctuations of the 1920s and the Great Depression. The number of tenant farmers increased from 294 in 1920 to 709 (46 percent of county farmers) in 1930, and remained high through the 1930s. The value of farms actually increased by almost 30 percent during the 1930s. During World War II a camp for German prisoners of war operated at the fairgrounds in Liberty. Manufacturing in the county, which had been minimal, expanded as a result of the war, from twenty-two establishments employing 370 workers in 1940 to fifty-two firms employing 744 workers by 1948. In that year Texas Gulf Sulphur Company (later Texasgulf) mined sulfur at Moss Bluff, south of Liberty. Forty manufacturing plants operated in 1958, along with 165 mineral companies, and a Central Chemical Corporation plant was completed by 1962. Cotton and corn declined after the war, and soybeans joined rice as the most important crops. More than two-thirds of the county's farms had electricity by 1945, and farm tenancy declined dramatically during the 1940s. Further improvement in transportation came in the 1960s, when U.S. Highway 59 was built through the county. Cleveland became a lumber and oilfield supply center, Dayton a rice and oilfield center, and Hull and Daisetta oil and lumber markets. Liberty, remaining a key port on the barge canal, shipped sulfur, chemicals, and steel. Agribusiness and tourism expanded in this period, and many residents found work in the Houston metropolitan area.
By the 1980s, 52 percent of the land was in farms and ranches and 36 percent was under cultivation. Nevertheless, the county continued to be known primarily for forest products. Primary crops included rice and soybeans, wheat, hay, and some watermelons, peaches, and pecans. Business establishments numbered 954. Oil and gas, sulfur, veneer and plywood, concrete, steel, and metal goods were other major industrial products. Farmers planted 4,800 acres of hay, 34,100 acres of rice, and 89,300 acres of sorghum in 1982, when cattle numbered 22,000. A total of 858 farms, or roughly half the number of 1940, continued in operation. Their average size was 418 acres. In the postwar period, the population in rural Liberty County grew approximately twice as fast as that in urban areas. The aggregate population continued to grow steadily, reaching 26,729 in 1950, 33,014 in 1970, 47,088 in 1980, and 52,716 in 1990. In contrast to the 30 percent growth in the 1970s, the increase in the 1980s was a more sedate 11 percent. The proportion of African Americans fell to 25 percent in 1940, 20 percent in 1970, and 13 percent in 1990. A small Hispanic population grew from some 2 percent of county residents in 1980 to 5.5 percent in 1990. The larger communities in 1990 included Liberty (pop. 7,733), Cleveland (7,124), Dayton (5,151), Ames (pop. 989), Daisetta (969), Hardin (563), Plum Grove (480), Kenefick (435), North Cleveland (176), and Devers (318).
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29