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| | "Business
Section North Side of Square, Goldwaite, Texas"
Postcard courtesy
rootsweb.com/
~txgenweb// postcards/Index.html |
| Question:
If Belton is the Seat of Bell
County and Hillsboro the Seat
of Hill County, then the Seat of Mills County is:
a. Millopolis
b. Millsboro
c. Milton
d. Goldthwaite
Yes, it's Goldthwaite - named after Joseph G.
Goldthwaite a railroad official who sold the first town lots. |
History
in a Pecan Shell
A timeline of significant Goldthwaite events:
1885: The town is established in what was Brown County on the Gulf, Colorado
and Santa Fe Railway.
1886: The post office opens.
1887: Mills County
is organized. Land was donated with the understanding that Goldthwaite would be
designated the county seat.
1888: The Mills County jail is built.
1890:
Courthouse is built. Santa
Fe Railroad builds a roundhouse and shops, but moves their division point
to Brownwood after labor problems.
1898: The population reaches 1,200, and
the town has two weekly newspapers, the Eagle and the Mountaineer.
1905: The
Confederate Reunion that year was the largest public gathering in Mills County
history.
1912: The courthouse burns
1913: The
courthouse is replaced
1915: county's first school library was established
and construction began on Lake Merritt.
1928: Goldthwaite had a population
of 2,800.
1931: The population falls to 1,324 due to drought and economic
hard times. Recovery after the depression was slow, and the actual number of business
in 1988 was below the 55 reported in the 1950s. Agricultural diversification provided
a solid economic base and wool, mohair, cattle, sheep, and pecans, are mainstays
of the economy. |
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The jail
Photo courtesy Jim and Lou Kinsey | |
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