Water Rails & Oil - Historic Mid & South Jefferson County

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A Christmas parade on Port Arthur’s
Procter Street, December 1945.
COURTESY OF THE PORT ARTHUR PUBLIC LIBRARY,
HISTORICAL COLLECTION.
drills to prepare for air attacks, and sighting of
German submarines just off the coast made
south county citizens uneasy. Churches opened
and businesses closed on June 6, 1944, when
news of the Allied invasion at Normandy
reached the county, so worshipers could pray for
the success of our servicemen, and, at the
request of the U.S. Army, Port Arthur’s “red-light
district” closed, at least temporarily, displacing
sixty-nine practitioners of the world’s “oldest
profession.” Everyone in Jefferson County
learned of the heroism of Sergeant Lucian
Adams, Jefferson County’s only winner of the
Congressional Medal of Honor during the war;
Sergeant Adams was a member of the 30th
Infantry, 3rd Division. Eventually a street and a
park were named in his honor.
The postwar era brought new challenges,
such as the reemployment of returning service
persons. The G.I. Bill of Rights enabled
educational expansion for a generation by
paying for veterans to enroll in vocational
schools or colleges. In 1948, Port Arthur Mayor
James W. Long led the community in celebration
of its Golden Jubilee, or fiftieth anniversary, and
Texas Lieutenant Governor Allan Shivers, who
had grown up in Port Arthur, became governor
of Texas when Governor Beauford Jester died.
The release of wartime commitments also made
labor strife more probable; for example, in
1950, workers struck the Texas Company for
115 days.
Change came to the south county area more
rapidly in the postwar world. Dorothy Ingram
became the first black female school principal in
Port Arthur, albeit in a segregated school. More
annual festivals, such as CavOILcade, began in
1953 and, in June 1957, the entire county
sustained significant damage from Hurricane
Audrey. The tropical hurricane struck heaviest
in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, where most of
the storm’s 500 or so fatalities occurred, then
swept up the Sabine River. The storm surge
extended twenty-five miles inland, and
southern Jefferson County received wind gusts
of 100 miles per hour, causing significant
structural damage and power outages.
A storm of a different kind struck Jefferson
County in 1961 when Representative Tom
James of Dallas, leader of the State Investigating
Committee (also known as the James
Commission), held hearings in Beaumont on
corruption in the county. The hearings
produced testimony incriminating popular
Sheriff Charley Meyer, police chiefs of cities in
the county and members of their police forces,
and other public officials. The investigation
revealed that the entire county was “wide open”
36 ✦ WATER, RAILS & OIL