HOCKLEY, TEXAS. Hockley is thirty-six miles northwest of Houston on State Highway 6, U.S. Highway 290, and the Southern Pacific line in northwestern Harris County. The earliest settler in the vicinity was Sam McCurley, who in 1829 lived a few miles from the site of present Hockley. The community was established in 1835 by George Washington Hockley. The Texas army (see ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS) camped near the settlement in April 1836. The Houston and Texas Central Railway began service to the community in May 1857. A post office was established there as Houseville in 1858, but the name was changed to Hockley before the end of the year. During the late 1860s efforts to make Hockley the county seat of a new county known as Hockley failed. The community had a population of 296 in 1890 and two general stores and a hotel by 1892. By 1896 Hockley had added a third store, four saloons, and a cotton gin. In 1914 several stock breeders and a gristmill operated in the area. In 1905 the local white school had seventy pupils and three teachers, and the black school had seventy-four students and one teacher. The 1936 county highway map showed two schools, a church, and a cemetery at the townsite. From the 1920s to the early 1940s Hockley had a population of 200 and a maximum of seven businesses. From 1949 through 1991 its population was reported as 300. In 1992 Hockley had forty-five businesses. In 2000 the population remained the same with ninety-five businesses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank M. Spindler, "The History of Hempstead and the Formation of Waller County," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 63 (January 1960).
