Ross Shaw Sterling, born in 1875 and reared on his family farm here, carried through life a vigorous philosophy he learned as a youth hoeing these fields, staying ahead by taking "3 or 4 licks" while others took 2. In 1898 he married Maud Abbie Gage, and they had 5 children. He bought 2 wells in 1910 and developed them into the Humble Oil & Refining Company in 1917, then entered Houston real estate development and in 1925 bought the Houston "Dispatch" and "Post," forerunners of the present Houston "Post." As head of the Texas Highway Commission from 1927 to 1930, he achieved major reforms in road programs. As governor of Texas from 1931 to 1933, during critical years of the Depression, he handled the era's crises forcefully by calling a special session of the Legislature to address agricultural over-production and by placing 4 counties under martial law after violations of oil conservation rules. Returning to private life, he lost his fortune but launched the Sterling Oil & Refining Company and later headed other major businesses. His philanthropies included giving his La Porte estate as a boys' home, founding a boys' camp, and donating to Texas Christian University.