24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Dayton, TX

Dayton began in 1831 as West Liberty, the part of the original town of Liberty that lay west of the Trinity River, and its residents voted to separate from Liberty in 1898.

The town took its modern name from early settler Isaiah Cates Day: conductors called the railroad stop Day's Town or Days Station, and the post office adopted the name Dayton in 1877.

Dayton incorporated in May 1911, but after a fire devastated the town center that August, voters chose to disincorporate; the city reincorporated on November 28, 1925.

Marion Price Daniel Sr., a future governor of Texas, was born in Dayton on October 10, 1910.

The 2020 census counted 8,777 residents in Dayton, living in 3,113 households.

Dayton has grown steadily from 5,709 residents in 2000 to 8,777 in 2020 as it has become a Houston exurb, and it now covers about 30.7 square miles of southwestern Liberty County.

Four highways converge in Dayton - U.S. Highway 90, State Highway 146 toward Baytown, State Highway 321 toward Cleveland, and FM 1960 toward Houston - and the Grand Parkway (State Highway 99) also crosses the city, which is also a meeting point of two rail lines.

Dayton's early economy rested on lumbering and cattle raising, and rice became a major crop after drainage systems were built to dry the low prairie land.

By 1989 the Dayton Independent School District, with the largest school enrollment in Liberty County, had become the city's major employer; its students attend Dayton High School and are zoned for Lee College in Baytown.

Three Texas prison units - the Hightower Unit, the Dempsie Henley Unit, and the Lucille G. Plane Unit - operate about four miles north of downtown Dayton.