Original Site of Valley Mills
Valley Mills, Bosque County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A. H. Steagall and Dr. E. P. Booth purchased 300 acres of land on the north side of the Bosque River in 1868. They mapped out and platted a townsite, which they named Valley Mills. As settlers began arriving in the area, the first homes were built of logs. Soon, however, with products provided by a local sawmill, many more homes were constructed of sawn lumber. In addition to the sawmill, flour and grist mills were also built in the valley. Cotton gins were soon built, as well, to process hundreds of bales from neighboring farms. A United States post office was established in Valley Mills in 1867, with Moses Isenhower serving as first postmaster. Experiencing steady growth, the town at its peak boasted homes, general stores, a drugstore, blacksmith shop, boardinghouse, and stagecoach stop. In 1881 the Santa Fe Railroad line was built through the area, but the tracks were laid on the south side of the river about one mile from the original townsite. Soon thereafter the residents of Valley Mills moved their town to be closer to the rail line. By 1900 the original site of Valley Mills had become a ghost town. (1990)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1868 A. H. Steagall and Dr. E. P. Booth platted a townsite along the Bosque River and named it Valley Mills for the sawmills, flour mills, and grist mills that soon powered its growth. Cotton gins processed hundreds of bales, and the town filled out with stores, a drugstore, a blacksmith, and a stagecoach stop. When the Santa Fe Railroad bypassed the townsite by a mile in 1881, residents simply picked up and moved toward the tracks, leaving the original settlement a ghost town by 1900.
Why it matters
Valley Mills tells the classic story of the railroad remaking the Texas map — towns that failed to sit on the line withered, and their people moved to meet the rails.
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Related people
- · A. H. Steagall
- · E. P. Booth
- · Moses Isenhower
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pool-Tibbs House
Valley Mills, TX
S. A. Pool built this stone house, a store, and a cotton gin on the Bosque River in 1870, using stone from nearby Fitzhugh Hill. When the Santa Fe Railroad prompted Valley Mills to relocate south of the river, this became the oldest house in the "new" town; Mississippi Civil War veteran Robert A. Tibbs bought it in 1891.
Clifton Whipple Truss Bridge
Clifton, TX
Built in 1884 by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Ohio for $6,465, this 150-foot span crosses the North Bosque River. It is a Whipple truss, a design named for its inventor and now rare in Texas. For nearly six decades it carried travelers and trade across the river, weathering repeated floods until a new highway rerouted traffic in 1941.
Aquilla Creek Truss Bridge
Gholson, TX
Aquilla Creek's crossing was notoriously impassable in wet weather, so in 1887 the county judge contracted for an iron span with a hundred-foot approach on each bank. The first firm failed to finish, and the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Works of Leavenworth, Kansas, completed the truss bridge in 1892 for $3,000. Two sister iron bridges over the same creek fell in the 1950s, but strong local support saved this one even after a modern concrete bridge took over the traffic in 1998.
McGregor
McGregor, TX
McGregor was born of the railroad. In 1882 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and the Texas and St. Louis lines drew statewide crowds to a public auction of town lots, and settlers from nearby hamlets like Banks and Eagle Springs moved in. Named for pioneer physician Dr. Gregor Carmichael McGregor, the town grew as an agricultural shipping hub and boomed again during World War II with a new ordnance plant.