Cement, Texas
TSHA
USGenWeb >> TXGenWeb >> Dallas County >> Cement, Texas
Lisa C. Maxwell
Cement or Cement City was on the Missouri Pacific Railroad three miles west of downtown Dallas, south of the Trinity River and north of the old site of La Réunion in central Dallas County. The community was named for the two cement plants, its largest employers. Émile Remond arrived from France in 1856, acquired property in the La Réunion colony tract after it dissolved in 1857, and began a brick-making business. Because of an interest in geology he began experimenting with the white rocks on the west bank of the Trinity and discovered in the late 1880s that the area was ideal for lime and cement manufacturing. He later started the Iola Cement Plant, which existed for only a short time.
Around 1901 a group of Galveston investors heard of the cement-making potential of the area and organized the Trinity Portland Cement Company. The Texas and Pacific ran through the area. In 1907 the company opened, and families moved in to work. A local post office operated from 1907 until 1915. At that time Cement had a population of 500, telephone connections, a physician, and grocery, drug, and general stores. A short time later Cement City High School was built. On November 15, 1928, the Cement City school system merged with the Dallas Independent School District.
By 1931 Cement City was incorporated and had a population of 609 and eight businesses. By the mid-1930s the number of businesses had risen to fourteen. The area became so highly industrialized through its production of cement, one of Dallas County's most important products, that the residential area of the town declined; the population in the early 1940s was only 249. By 1951 the community was unincorporated. The population rose to 450 in 1960, the last time Cement is mentioned as an independent community.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dallas Daily Times Herald, May 28, 1949. Sidney A. Davidson, Jr., General Portland, Inc.: The Dallas Plant Story (Dallas: Taylor, 1987). Rose Mary Rumbley, A Century of Class: Public Education in Dallas, 1884–1984 (Austin: Eakin Press, 1984).
Handbook of Texas Online, Lisa C. Maxwell, "CEMENT, TX"
