Brookhaven

Brookhaven was on Oak Branch twelve miles northwest of Belton in northwestern Bell County. Before 1882 the community was loosely known as Post Oak Branch and was the site of numerous revivals and camp meetings. In the summer of 1882, when a local school was constructed, the community's name was changed to Brookhaven at the suggestion of Charlie and Ed Oswalt, who named it for the town in Mississippi where they had previously lived. A post office served Brookhaven from 1884 to 1913. In 1896 Brookhaven had a population of seventy-five and a Masonic hall, a district school, a cotton gin, two general stores, two drugstores, and three churches (Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian). The Brookhaven school enrolled 132 pupils in 1903. The community's population had dropped to fifty by the mid-1940s, when the town had two businesses. By 1949 the Fort Hood military reservation had subsumed the site of Brookhaven, and the community was not listed in that year's Texas Almanac.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.