A merchant and land speculator, Huling sold and transported provisions to Capt.
Along with Henry Millard and Joseph Pulsifer, Thomas B. Huling helped lay out the original plans for Beaumont, Texas.
[1] Huling's first wife, known only as Sarah, apparently never came to Texas; she died in 1838, leaving him with one child.
Seeking to stimulate the growth of the county, and especially his project at Zavala, he attempted unsuccessfully to persuade some sixty English families to colonize the area in 1847.
Nonetheless, many of Huling's economic ventures paid high dividends; by 1850 he owned seventeen slaves and estimated the worth of his real property at $100,000.