Millsap, Texas, Parker County. (original) (raw)

Benjamin M. Porter Cabin,
First Millsap U.S. Post Office, 1877
Photo courtesy Lance Carthen

History in a Pecan Shell

It was originally a relay station on the stagecoach route that ran from Weatherford to Palo Pinto. A Millsap post office opened in 1877. In 1880 the tracks of the Texas and Pacific Railway reached the area, and three small communities moved to take advantage of the railroad: Mineral City, Peck City, and the Millsap relay station. By the 1890s Millsap was serving area farmers as a retail and shipping point; within a decade the town had a bank, more than a dozen other businesses, three churches, a ten-grade educational institution called Millsap College, and a weekly newspaper, the Millsap News.

The community population increased from an estimated 100 in 1890 to 800 in 1920. Between 1940 and 1970, however, it declined, reaching a low of 261 by 1968. It has since increased to it's current 353 after a brief surge to 485 in 1990.

Fuller Millsap Cabin, 1852, the first building in Millsap
Photo courtesy Lance Carthen

The sign identifying the historic log cabins in Millsap
Photo courtesy Lance Carthen

An old well
Photo courtesy Lance Carthen

Photographer's Note:
"Recently I decided to photograph the small town of Millsap TX. Millsap is a very small town consisting of a few buildings and a convenient store. A very old post office has been preserved in Millsap, it's the large log cabin with a black fence in the middle of it. Enclosed also is a photo of one of the first houses established in Millsap, a small log cabin. There is also a big red barn on the side of the road as soon as you get into Millsap which I thought was interesting... There was also a new post office but didn't really look worth sending, just a modern post office... Thanks." - Lance Carthen, February 09, 2007

Millsap, Texas Forum

• Subject: Millsap, Texas
  My mother, Elba Littlefield, was born and raised in Millsap, Texas. Her parents were Hilliard and Eva Littlefield, farmers for a time. Granddad owned the general store during the Great Depression and helped lots of people with merchandise on credit. He was a leader of the community and an elder at the Church of Christ that my grandmother attended until she died in 1969. I visited there at least one week every summer during my childhood. Granny lived just across the street from the train tracks. Everyday we would walk almost a mile to the post office and then stop and visit at the gas station/store on the way home. One of the big events during my time there was the opening of a new hardware store in the 1950's. There are nothing for me but good memories of Millsap and the wonderful people, the Fords, the Whites, the Byrds who owned a turkey farm, Rev. Cunningham, etc. who lived there from 1945 until Granny's death in 1969. - Eva Trowbridge, Trenton, FL, December 22, 2012
• Subject: Indian Attacks, and Old Post Office
  "I was born in Weatherford, was raised in Millsap and different branches of my family have been in this area since the mid 1800s. As a child I played in the �Old Millsap Cabin� on the �Old Millsap Place� when it was located on Grindstone Creek just off the present day Wilson Bend Road several miles outside of town.
  There are some old stories about Indian attacks associated with this place and there was a huge old oak tree in what was then its front yard where it was rumored that Fuller hung seven dead Indians killed in one of the fights. My brother and I, would hunt arrow heads there and imagine scenes of the battles when we would find one.
  The cabin you show as the: �Fuller Millsap Cabin, c.1852, the first building in Millsap� has always been rumored to be the �Old Post Office� and was associated with Ben Porter but it was never even near Millsap. It was located on the old stage line between Millsap and Mineral Wells, and to my knowledge, its �post office� status was only a story. We could never figure out how people in that time would travel 7 or 8 miles outside of town just for mail.
  There are still a few of the old timers around here but most of them that I heard the stories from have long since passed away and it is getting harder and harder to even find anyone here that is from the area.
  My father is probably one of the best sources for local history; he was born in Millsap in the 1930s and lived in Millsap and Brock most of his life." - Wayne Armstrong Millsap, Texas, March, 2010

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