Ames

Ames is at the junction of Farm Road 1909 and U.S. Highway 90, forty-two miles west of Beaumont in south central Liberty County. Once known as Rachal Station after pioneer Darius Ciriaque Rachal qv , Ames was renamed for a section foreman on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. The community had a flag station during the Civil War and a full station by 1890. A local Catholic rectory was built in 1915. Ames had a population of twenty-five in 1930. The county set up a new voting box there in 1945. In 1972 Ames voters incorporated their town by a margin of 69 to 8. During the mid-1970s the town's population was estimated at 350, and by 1980 Ames had 1,155 residents and an array of businesses. The population was 989 in 1990 and grew to 1,079 in 2000.