Biohazard Cleanup Near West Taft Taft, TX

Taft began shortly after 1886 as a railroad flag stop on the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company's ranch land, installed at the request of cattleman Thomas M. Coleman.

The little company settlement that grew up around the cattle-shipping pens was first known as Mesquital, after the company's nearby Mesquital Mill windmill.

In 1900 Joseph F. Green took over management of the Coleman-Fulton company and decided to build a proper town at the site.

In 1904 the town was renamed Taft, after Charles P. Taft of Cincinnati — the half-brother of President William Howard Taft — and a post office opened the same year.

In 1918 the Coleman-Fulton directors decided to sell off the entire ranch, including the town of Taft and its utilities, industries, and businesses.

Taft incorporated in 1929, with Ben Ivey as its first mayor.

Oil was discovered north of Taft in 1935, and the boom that followed helped the town survive the Great Depression.

Taft is often called the "Friendliest Cotton-Pickin' City in Texas," a nod to its cotton-farming heritage.

Taft's population peaked at 3,686 in 1980 and has declined since, falling to 3,048 in 2010 and 2,801 in the 2020 census.

Students in Taft attend schools in the Taft Independent School District, including Taft High School, and Del Mar College is the designated community college for all of San Patricio County.