Goldthwaite

Goldthwaite, Texas

Goldthwaite, Texas

Goldthwaite is the seat of Mills County, Texas. Photograph by Billy Hathorn.
Product photo
Promotion: Nearby

Map of Mills County

Goldthwaite, the county seat of Mills County, is at the convergence of U.S. highways 84 and 183, State Highway 16, and Farm roads 574 and 572, in the central part of the county. The town was established in what was then southern Brown County in 1885, with the coming of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, and was named for Joe G. Goldthwaite, the railroad official who conducted the auction of town lots. The post office opened in 1886. After Mills County was organized the following year, a number of landowners donated townsite property in exchange for assurances that Goldthwaite would be selected county seat. A county courthouse was completed in 1890; the first county jail, constructed in 1888, is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Santa Fe built shops and a roundhouse switch, intending Goldthwaite as a division point, but after labor problems in the town the railroad moved its shops to Brownwood. Even without the railroad, the town flourished. By 1898 it had a population of 1,200, three churches, a bank, a number of hotels and boardinghouses, two cotton gins, two gristmills, a public and a private school, many stores, and two weekly newspapers, the Eagle and the Mountaineer. The 1905 meeting of the Confederate Reunion, a major annual social event, was the largest public gathering in Mills County history.

Continue Reading

Kathy Edwards | © TSHA

Handbook of Texas Logo

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

Belongs to

Goldthwaite is part of or belongs to the following places:

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Goldthwaite is classified as a Town

Location

Latitude: 31.45327680
Longitude: -98.57015500

Has Post Office

Yes

Is Incorporated

Yes

Population Count, 2021 View more »

1,715