Millheim

Millheim was established eight miles south of Bellville in central Austin County about 1845, when a mill was constructed on Clear Creek, a tributary of Mill Creek. The founders of the community were German immigrants who moved southeast through Mill Creek Valley from settlements in the vicinity of Cat Spring. The town received its name in the 1850s at a meeting held in the Engelking and Noltke general store. An immigrant from the Palatinate, Wilhelm Schneider, suggested the name Muelheim; it was later anglicized to its present spelling. In the 1850s E. G. Maetze started the first school at the settlement, with courses conducted in German. By 1856 a singing society had been organized. A post office was established in the community by 1878. In 1885 the town had a population of 100, as well as a brewery, a gin, a grist and saw mill, and several stores. Prospects for further development were dimmed, however, when the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway survey bypassed the town to the east. By 1915 the local post office had been discontinued in favor of rural mail delivery from Peters. The Millheim population was reported as 150 in 1915, but by 1936 it had fallen again to an estimated 100. The number of residents declined rapidly after World War II, though in 1948, the last year for which population statistics are available for Millheim, the town still reported three rated businesses, a church, a school, and an estimated 100 inhabitants. The population grew to 150 by 2000.