Tidwell

The Steele Creek community was on Steele Creek three miles northwest of Thornton in southwestern Limestone County. The creek was probably named for local settler and San Jacinto veteran Alfonso Steele. The community was also known as Tidwell for David J. Tidwell, an early pastor who held annual camp meetings at the Methodist church. The Steele Creek post office opened in 1856 with Tidwell as postmaster. In the 1850s the community had two stores, a church, and a cemetery. The post office closed in 1866, reopened for a few months in 1868, but was finally discontinued; mail for Steele Creek residents was sent to Springfield. Residents probably moved to Thornton after the Houston and Texas Central Railway was constructed in the 1870s. A few scattered houses appeared on county maps of the Steele Creek area in the 1940s, but the site was not named.