Mumford

Mumford was on the Missouri Pacific line and Farm Road 50 in extreme southeastern Robertson County. It was named for one of the earliest county residents, Jesse Mumford, who in 1855 successfully petitioned the county court for a license to operate a ferry at a site on the Brazos just east of old Fort Tenoxtitlán. The community was established on the east bank of the Brazos in a plantation area. A post office opened there in 1878, and by 1885 the Mumford community had a population of fifty, a general store, and a cotton gin. J. R. Collier arrived in the 1880s and recruited Italian immigrants to sharecrop his land holdings. These sharecroppers eventually became landowners and attracted other Italian immigrants to the area. In 1890 the community had a gin, a lumberyard, a brick kiln, a syrup mill, a broom factory, a church, and a school; in 1891 the Hearne and Brazos Valley Railway built into the area. Mumford by 1893 also had two saloons, two barbershops, two drugstores, and several other small businesses. The first iron bridge near Mumford was erected in 1895 across the Brazos, connecting Robertson and Burleson counties. By then Mumford's population was reported as 550. A major flood washed away much of the town and the railroad in 1899. The town in 1915 had a gin, a general store, and about 150 residents, a figure that remained stable for the next several decades. In 1947 Mumford had a post office, three businesses, and 150 citizens. In the early 1990s the community still had the post office, four businesses, and a population of 170. The population remained the same in 2000.