Thomaston

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm following the official marker on Thomaston, right there in DeWitt County, so let's see what the record says. Now, before there was a Thomaston, there was a place called Price's Creek. It had been settled back in 1848, when the Republic of Texas was still a living memory, and it counted among its people a man called Judge David Murphree, born in 1811, gone by 1866, and by every account a patriot of that republic.

That community put down roots, held on, and waited for whatever came next. What came next was iron rails. In 1872, the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railroad was pushing its line through DeWitt County, and that changed everything.

A new town was platted, and it needed a name. The honor went to Nathan Thomas, born 1809, died 1891, a state legislator who did more than lend his name to the place. Thomas sold the southern portion of the townsite, a tract that sat within the Refugio Amador survey, to the railroad itself.

The northern part of the plat came to the town a different way. John P. Wright and his wife Mary, who had been Mary Lockhart before she married, donated that piece from the Charles Lockhart Survey.

Two parcels, two families, one new town. And that town grew fast. A schoolteacher named J.

H. Moore and his wife Lou, who was a Thomas by birth, built the very first house in Thomaston. They didn't stop there.

They also owned the cotton gin and the grist mill, which means if you needed your crop processed or your grain ground, you knew right where to go. The man who kept the railroad humming on the ground was James Pridgen. First railroad agent.

First postmaster. First merchant. Three titles, one man, and a whole lot of work.

At its peak, Thomaston was home to five hundred people. De Witt County's first railroad town, built out of a settlement older than the state itself, carrying the name of a legislator, standing on land given and sold by neighbors who believed something worth building was coming down the line. They weren't wrong.

What the marker says

(Founded 1872) De Witt County's first railroad town. Absorbed Price's Creek, 1848 settlement of Republic of Texas patriot, Judge David Murphree (1811-66). Thomaston was named for State Legislator Nathan Thomas (1809-91), who sold south part of townsite (in Refugio Amador survey) to Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railroad. North part of plat was donated (from Charles Lockhart Survey) by John P. and Mary (Lockhart) Wright. Schoolteacher J. H. Moore and wife Lou (Thomas) built first house and owned cotton gin and grist mill. James Pridgen was first railroad agent, postmaster, and merchant. At peak, town had 500 people.