Hanna Valley

Regency, also known as Hanna Valley and as Hannaville, is on the Colorado River twenty miles southwest of Goldthwaite in southwestern Mills County. Hanna Valley, one of three rich farming communities dividing the Colorado River valley in Mills County, was named for the Hanna family. David Hanna and two slaves settled in the area in 1854, and the next year David's father, Jesse P. Hanna, and Jesse's four other sons arrived in the valley, driving horses and cattle. According to local tradition, the Hanna women influenced their men to remain in the area because of its songbirds. By 1856 the Hannas had built the first house there. In 1862 a band of Comanche Indians attacked the residents of Hanna Valley, but by the early 1870s the threat of Indian raids had subsided. Around 1870, however, vigilante committees formed in the area to fight cattle rustling and other crimes, since there were no nearby courts of law. These groups eventually became criminal mobs that controlled and terrorized San Saba County and surrounding areas until the intervention of the Texas Rangers in 1896 and Capt. William J. McDonald in May 1897.

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.