Founded by engineer Col. Sam Robertson on the Gulf Coast Railroad, which reached this area in 1904, the city arose in a region colonized by Mexico about 1770. It was first called Bessie, for the child of railroad official B.F. Yoakum, then Diaz, to honor the Mexican president, and its present name honors landowner Benjamin Hicks. A land and water company and a sugar company opened here in 1906. Robertson became the first postmaster in 1907, and a school also opened that year with Miss Kate Purvis as teacher. The city was incorporated on June 27, 1911, with J.M. Breen as mayor and J. Scott Brown and J.H. Haines as commissioners.