Towns

Towns, also spelled Tauns, was a ranch community on Las Moras Creek a mile east of U.S. Highway 277 in far northwestern Maverick County. Sometime around 1880 John Tauns, for whom the community was named, established a ranch on Las Moras Creek. Local tradition suggests that he was one of many runaway slaves who had gravitated to the United States-Mexico border area during the Civil War era. The ranch, described as a small town with a school and a store, was a social center for a growing community of ranchers in the area; gatherings for horse racing, barbecues, and dancing were a common holiday event. In 1897 the Towns School had seventeen black pupils and one teacher. By 1936 the community had been abandoned; the ranch at that time was the domicile of the Ory James family.