DUANE
Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker for the Site of Donnell Mill, right here in Young County — so let's set the record straight and let the story breathe. Now, before we get to the mill itself, you need to understand something: James D. Donnell, his wife Julia, and their sons Will and Tom did not build that dam and mill on the first try.
The marker says heartbreaking failures — plural. Whatever went wrong, whatever the river took from them or the ground refused to hold, they kept coming back. And in 1876, they finished it.
The dam. The mill. Right here on this stretch of water in Young County, Texas.
Once it was running, that mill withstood floods and began turning out meal and flour for a vast region. Vast. That's the marker's own word, and I don't think it's exaggerating.
The Donnells had come all the way from Missouri, migrated to Texas and settled into Young County, and what they built here operated for almost half a century. The mill yard became the community gathering place. People came from all over that region — not just for flour and meal, but because that's where folks came together.
Now here's where the ground beneath your feet starts talking. The road that crossed the river right here was the San Antonio to Austin to Fort Belknap Military Road, built in the 1850s. And it wasn't just any travelers moving along it — the famed 2nd U.S.
Cavalry came through, under officers named Albert S. Johnston and Robert E. Lee.
Those are names history did not forget. Close by, in the 1850s, a community called Clear Fork took root. George, William, and Jonathan Lee Dobbs settled there, alongside Reverend Pleasant Tackitt and others.
But Indian marauders drove away most of those settlers — and the community scattered. The land went quiet. Then 1876 rolled around — same year the Donnell mill finally rose — and J.
L. Dobbs came back to claim his land. That same year, a man named Elias De Long opened a store that became the post office.
And when the Post Office Department added "ville" to his name, the place was titled Eliasville. That's the marker's own telling of it. In 1893, a bridge was built across the river here.
The present bridge came in 1957. Among the other settlers who came to this stretch of Texas were Captain Joseph Benedict and his wife Adele — and here's where the story takes a turn you might not see coming. Adele was the granddaughter of the colonizer W.
S. Peters. Their son, Harry Yandell Benedict, went on to become the tenth president of the University of Texas.
And a successor to that very office, Homer Price Rainey, also grew up here — right here along this same river, in the same small world built partly on Donnell flour. Heartbreaking failures turned into half a century of grinding grain. A road that moved cavalries.
A community scattered and then returned to. A mill yard where Texas came together — and two future presidents of a great university took their first steps in the same small place. Some ground carries more than you'd ever guess just driving past it.
What the marker says
After heartbreaking failures, James D. Donnell; his wife, Julia; and sons, Will and Tom, finished the dam and mill here in 1876. The mill withstood floods and began turning out meal and flour for a vast region. It operated almost half a century. The Donnells had migrated from Missouri to Texas, and Young County. Their mill yard was the community gathering place. Crossing river here was San Antonio to Austin to Fort Belknap Military Road of 1850s, used by famed 2nd U.S. Cavalry, under Albert S. Johnston and Robert E. Lee. Also nearby was site of 1850s community of Clear Fork, settled by George, William, and Jonathan Lee Dobbs, Rev. Pleasant Tackitt, and others. Indian marauders drove away most settlers. But in 1876 J. L Dobbs returned to claim his land. Also in 1876 Elias De Long opened a store that became the post office. (To his name the Post Office Department added "ville", titling the place Eliasville.) In 1893 a bridge was built here; the present bridge in 1957. Among other settlers were Captain Joseph Benedict and wife Adele, granddaughter of the colonizer W. S. Peters. Their son, Harry Yandell Benedict, became 10th president of the University of Texas. A successor in that office, Homer Price Rainey, also grew up here.