Site of Donnell Mill
South Bend, Young County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After heartbreaking failures, James D. Donnell; his wife, Julia; and sons, Will and Tom, finished the dam and mill here in 1876. The mill withstood floods and began turning out meal and flour for a vast region. It operated almost half a century. The Donnells had migrated from Missouri to Texas, and Young County. Their mill yard was the community gathering place. Crossing river here was San Antonio to Austin to Fort Belknap Military Road of 1850s, used by famed 2nd U.S. Cavalry, under Albert S. Johnston and Robert E. Lee. Also nearby was site of 1850s community of Clear Fork, settled by George, William, and Jonathan Lee Dobbs, Rev. Pleasant Tackitt, and others. Indian marauders drove away most settlers. But in 1876 J. L Dobbs returned to claim his land. Also in 1876 Elias De Long opened a store that became the post office. (To his name the Post Office Department added "ville", titling the place Eliasville.) In 1893 a bridge was built here; the present bridge in 1957. Among other settlers were Captain Joseph Benedict and wife Adele, granddaughter of the colonizer W. S. Peters. Their son, Harry Yandell Benedict, became 10th president of the University of Texas. A successor in that office, Homer Price Rainey, also grew up here.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After repeated failures, the Donnell family completed a dam and mill on the Clear Fork in 1876, and for nearly half a century it ground meal and flour for a vast frontier region. The mill yard became a community gathering place beside a river crossing once traveled by the 2nd U.S. Cavalry under Albert Sidney Johnston and Robert E. Lee. From this hard-won settlement grew Eliasville and a lineage that produced two University of Texas presidents.
Why it matters
A frontier gristmill was the beating heart of a remote community — the reason a settlement survived Indian raids and floods to become a town on the map.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James D. Donnell
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ryus Store Building
Graham, TX
In 1879, after fire destroyed his frame store, druggist Joseph E. Ryus rebuilt on the same Graham lot in locally fired brick — a statement of permanence in a young frontier county seat. The room above his drugstore became Judge Andrew P. McCormick's first federal district courtroom that same year, before the court decamped for Abilene. Since 1892 the Knights of Pythias have kept their lodge hall on the upper floor, giving the building an unbroken civic life for over a century.
Cattle Raisers Association Oak
Graham, TX
Under this oak near Graham in February 1877, forty cattlemen banded together to form the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas, choosing their first officers on the open range. In an era of unbranded strays, rustling, and the great trail drives, the group organized ranchers to protect their herds and their interests. By 1936 the association counted some 2,500 members.
Graham Salt Works
Graham, TX
Saline seeps along Salt Creek drew settlers here in the 1850s, and Martin Bowers began the first commercial salt-making before selling to Confederate veteran A. B. Gant. In 1871 the brothers Gustavus and Edwin Graham bought the works and re-equipped it to produce up to 2,500 pounds of salt a day, though it ran only two years because hauling the salt to market cost more than making it. Brief as it was, the enterprise seeded a town: the Grahams gave land for the community that bears their name and for the cemetery where both are buried.
Standpipe Mountain
Graham, TX
The western peak of the twin Belknap Range mountains, Standpipe Mountain lay within land the Graham brothers bought in 1872 as they founded the town that bears their name and set to developing its resources. E. S. Graham even prospected the mountain for silver in the 1890s. It took its name in 1907 when the city built a water tank on its crest, and after World War I it was given to the city as Victory Park.