Mills County, Texas: History
The Clovis are the earliest known people to inhabit the territory before Mills County, though recent discoveries indicate that people were living in the area as far back as 15,000 to 20,000 years. More recently, the Tonkawa occupied it, and numerous vestiges from their campsites remain across the county, including cooking middens. Thought to be the first White man to explore the area, Pedro Vial, visited in 1786 and 1789 while traveling between San Antonio and Santa Fe. Captain Henry S. Brown, believed to be the first white visitor, led a group to the area in 1825 to recover stolen stock. Between 1835 and 1850, the eastern part of what was to become Mills County was once encompassed by the Mexican municipality Milam (originally Viesca Municipality); the western part of the county was once a part of Bexar County between 1839 and 1848, then within Travis County between 1848 and 1852.
The Comanche regularly hunted in what became Mills County, since it was located along the southeastern edge of a large buffalo range. Native tribes moved through the area via what locals called the Comanche Trail, which led to South Texas. Starting in the 1840s, aggressive groups of Comanche and Apache pushed the Tonkawa out and raided the area in an effort to keep control of it as late as 1850, frequently stealing horses and scalping settlers who had started to move there in significant numbers after 1855. The earliest settlers arrived when the area had no fences and land was free.
Eventually, the Apache moved west, leaving the Comanche in control. Earlier, in 1835, the general council of Texas sent the first Texas Rangers to aid settlers. In 1854, the Texas Legislature appropriated land located on the Texas frontier, built a series of reservations, and moved the natives there starting in 1855, yet native incursions into White settlements continued. By the mid-1870s, native violence began to diminish, yet leading up to the 1880s, Comanche and Kiowa continued to attack the area. Comanches raided Williams Ranch in the late 1870s, the last recorded assault in the area.
The earliest communities in were Center City and Hanna Valley, both organized in 1854. One source identifies the David Morris Sr., and Dick Jenkins families as the first pioneers in the area, who settled south of present-day Center City in 1852. Killed by the natives, Dick Jenkins is thought to be the first person buried in what was to become Mills County.
Williams Ranch, established in 1855 in Brown County, was the first community that developed into a large, dynamic town after establishing trade with Mexico and serving as a major center for cattle business, capitalizing on its location near the Western Cattle Trail. The town served as the "headquarters" of the West Texas frontier and was expected to serve as the county seat. Old Fort Phantom Hill Road, the only military route that crossed Mills County, passed through Williams Ranch, connecting Austin and Fort Phantom Hill, located north of Abilene. In 1876, a telegraph line was built along the road, later to be known as the "Wire Road". The Florida Hotel (locally referred to as the Hutch Hotel) at Williams Ranch hosted a telegraph office operated by Hallie Hutchinson, the first woman telegraph operator in the U.S. The telegraph line connected Austin and Fort Concho. …