There are lot of myths regarding Humble’s history. By myths, I mean stories that keep getting spread around that are not true. I gave you the top seven of these myths in a previous article (12/23/2019). Let’s look at some more:
8) The Benders donated the land for the Charles Bender High School.Many people have claimed that the land where Charles Bender High School is located was supposed to revert back to the Bender family when it was no longer used for a school. There IS some basis for claims like this. In the early history of Harris County, when a person donated land to be used for a school, there was typically a clause in the deed that the land was to revert back to the original owner when it was no longer used for a “free and public school.” However, in practice, this almost never happened. When the land was no longer used for a school (decades later), the school district would simply sell the land.
Regardless, that is not the case with the land where Charles Bender High School is located because the Benders did not donate the land for the school. The land where Charles Bender High School sits was purchased by the school district from the Bender estate in 1909. We know because we have the record of the sale in the county records. Purchased. Not donated.
9) The town of Humble was named after the Humble Oil Company. I’ve seen this one a lot. Whoever created this myth obviously had no idea of the history of Humble. Let’s look at the facts: the town of Humble was founded in 1886; the Humble Oil field was discovered in 1904; the Humble Oil Company was founded in 1911. So, it is clear that the town of Humble was not named after the Humble Oil Company, because the town of Humble predates the Humble Oil Company by a good 24 years.
10) Pleasant Humble is buried in the old Humble Cemetery. Nope. While Mrs. Humble is buried in the Humble Cemetery, Pleasant Humble is buried in Knupple Cemetery in Hardin County. He was living in Kountze, Texas with his sister when he died, and he was buried among the other Humble family members in that cemetery. His niece provided this information, as she was responsible for his burial and the upkeep of his grave for many years. However, there is no marker over his grave.
11) Humble used to be pronounced with the “H.” The town of Humble has always been pronounced without the “H”, because that is the way Pleasant Humble spoke his name. However, the Humble Oil Company did use the “H” in their name. Being a large and popular oil company, they had ads all over the radio and in TV commercials where they pronounced their company as “Humble” instead of “umble.” So, I can understand people being confused about this one. But, just to be clear, the town has ALWAYS been pronounced as U-M-B-L-E.
