Ratler, Texas and the Renfro Dam
Goldthwaite, Mills County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Mary (Robins) and J. W. Jones built a dam of live oak logs and sandstone on the Colorado River about 8 miles south of this site between 1876 and 1879. The dam provided power to Jones' grist mill and cotton gin. The community became known as Jones Valley. The grist mill became a trade center, the dam a favorite recreation spot for area settlers. In 1883 the Jones' properties were sold to J. D. Willis. When Mills County was formed in 1885, the U. S. Postal Service set up a station in the Willis store, renaming the town Ratler. In 1933 Willis sold to B. F. Renfro, who rebuilt the dam of sandstone. The 1936 flood destroyed everything but the dam. (1998)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the late 1870s Mary and J. W. Jones threw a dam of live-oak logs and sandstone across the Colorado River to power a grist mill and cotton gin, and a settlement called Jones Valley grew up around the trade it drew. When the mail arrived after Mills County's formation, the town was rechristened Ratler, and its dam became a favorite swimming and fishing spot for area settlers. Successive owners rebuilt the dam in sturdier stone, and though the great flood of 1936 swept nearly everything away, the dam itself endured.
Why it matters
Water-powered mills like this one were the economic engines of frontier Texas, turning a river bend into a trade center that gathered a whole community around it.
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Related people
- · Mary Robins Jones
- · J. W. Jones
- · B. F. Renfro
Related events
- · Flood of 1936
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John Williams
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A North Carolinian by birth, John Williams came to this stretch of central Texas in 1855 and became one of the first permanent settlers of what are now Brown and Mills counties. He helped establish the region's early cattle industry, and the settlement of Williams Ranch grew up around his homestead while nearby Herd Pen Branch took its name from his roundup pens. With his wife Annie he raised six children who became pioneers of the community in their own right.
Bowser Community
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Around 1858 the Abel Bowser family settled at a bend of the Colorado River, and the village of Bowser Bend grew up with a school, cemetery, cotton gin, and store by the late 1880s. Recurring floods pushed the town to relocate after Paul Varga donated higher land for a chapel and cemetery in 1890, but the loss of its post office, gin, and school sent Bowser into decline by the 1940s.
Chadwick's Mill
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