Gustine
Gustine, Comanche County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settlers began arriving in this area of Comanche County in the 1870s. Among the pioneers were members of the Blankenship family, who inherited land granted to brothers Christopher and A. K. Clark for Republic of Texas military service. The first settlement, located about three-fourths of a mile northeast of this site, was named Evergreen. It included homes, a store, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, and school. In the 1880s, when a new road opened between Comanche and Hamilton, the citizens of Evergreen moved their town to this site to be on the route of the new road. A U.S. post office opened in January 1888, and was named for postmaster Samuel Gustine. By the early 20th century, the town of Gustine boasted homes, churches, and businesses, including two cotton gins, three poultry companies, a grist mill, retail stores, telephone and electric utilities, a newspaper, and a bank. The Cotton Belt Railway built a line through the area in 1910, causing an economic boom until it was discontinued in the 1930s. State Highway 36 was built on the railroad right-of-way, however, maintaining the town's most important transportation route. (1992)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlers reached this part of Comanche County in the 1870s, some of them working land granted for Republic of Texas military service, and first gathered in a settlement called Evergreen. When a new road opened between Comanche and Hamilton in the 1880s, the whole town simply picked up and moved to sit astride the route, taking the name Gustine after its first postmaster in 1888. The arrival of the Cotton Belt Railway in 1910 brought a boom of gins, businesses, and utilities; when the line closed in the 1930s, State Highway 36 took over its right-of-way and kept the town on the map.
Why it matters
Gustine shows how transportation routes—first a wagon road, then a railroad, then a highway—could repeatedly make or break a rural Texas community.
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Related people
- · Samuel Gustine
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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