Byrds

Byrds is on a country road at the northern edge of Lake Brownwood in north central Brown County. The site was settled in 1870 and named for Martin H. Byrd, who by 1874 had opened a store there and who also served as postmaster when the community received a post office, called Byrd's Store, in 1877. By 1884 Byrd's Store, which shipped cattle, cotton, and pecans, had a population of seventy-five, a district school, Methodist and Baptist churches, a steam cotton gin, and steam grist and saw mills. By 1896 the post office name had been changed to Byrd's, and the population had fallen to fourteen. In 1914 Byrd's reported only one business, a general store. In 1925 the population was sixty-four. Sometime during the 1930s the Byrd's school was consolidated with the Williams school district, and by 1949 the population had fallen to twenty people, who supported one business. By 1957, when population was still reported at twenty, the post office had closed.