Wilkins

Wilkins, also known as Wilkins Mills, on U.S. Highway 80 twelve miles southwest of Gilmer in southwestern Upshur County, was first settled in the late 1870s as a stop on the Texas and Pacific Railway. The town was originally known as Wilkins Mills, and a post office under that name operated in 1879–80. The name was later shortened to Wilkins. A second post office opened in 1903 but closed the following year. In the mid-1930s the community consisted of two stores and a number of houses. After World War II the stores were closed, and by the mid-1960s only a cemetery and a few scattered houses remained. In 1990 Wilkins was a dispersed rural community. In 2000 the population was seventy-five.