Carlos

Carlos, on State Highway 30 and Farm Road 244 in western Grimes County, was founded about 1906. Settlement in the vicinity began as early as the 1830s, but the formation of a community awaited the coming of the railroad. Farm families moved to the newly constructed Houston and Texas Central Railway line from Navasota to Mexia. A post office and a railroad freight depot were established in the settlement by 1907. By 1910 John Lindley was operating a local general merchandise store and a cotton gin, and W. G. Prescott had constructed a sawmill and general store. Carlos was initially a lumbering community and shipping center for cordwood, cattle, cotton, and other products. In 1936 the Missionary Baptist Church was moved to the town from Dry Creek. Electrification arrived in 1947. In 1949 Farm Road 244 reached the community, and ten years later State Highway 30 was extended through town. In the early 1980s the Texas Municipal Power Agency began operating its lignite-powered Gibbons Creek Plant nearby.

In 1910 Carlos had a population of 150. By the late 1920s population losses had resulted in the closing of the post office. In 1936 the community had a school, one business, and an estimated population of sixty. Population figures have been unavailable since 1948, at which time the community had an estimated sixty residents and one rated business.