Gustine

Gustine's early history began at Old Evergreen. The Handbook credits H. H. Blankenship and M. B. Odell with settling the area about 1873, and says services were held under a tree until a union church was built. The first store came in 1889. The Cotton Belt arrived in 1911, and by 1914 Gustine had three churches, two banks, a newspaper and 900 people. It was incorporated in 1915. The population was 409 in 1940 and 324 in 1980, when the Handbook listed cattle, goats, hogs, grain, peanuts, pecans and fruit as the economy.

What the plaque says

Gustine Settlers began arriving in this area of Comanche County in the 1870s. Among the pioneers were members of the Blankenship family, who inherited land granted to brothers Christopher and A. K. Clark for Republic of Texas military service. The first settlement, located about three-fourths of a mile northeast of this site, was named Evergreen. It included homes, a store, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, and school. In the 1880s, when a new road opened between Comanche and Hamilton, the citizens of Evergreen moved their town to this site to be on the route of the new road. A U.S. post office opened in January 1888, and was named for postmaster Samuel Gustine. By the early 20th century, the town of Gustine boasted homes, churches, and businesses, including two cotton gins, three poultry companies, a grist mill, retail stores, telephone and electric utilities, a newspaper, and a bank. The Cotton Belt Railway built a line through the area in 1910, causing an economic boom until it was discontinued in the 1930s. State Highway 36 was built on the railroad right-of-way, however, maintaining the town's most important transportation route. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dublin Bottling Works — 17 mi
  The Erath County plant that bottled Dr Pepper with cane sugar from 1891 until a 2012 settlement ended its Dr Pepper license, and that still makes its own sodas the same way.
• Hamilton County Courthouse — 19 mi
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.

More markers nearby

• Cora — steps away
• Site of Swann Hill School — 4.0 mi
• Union Primitive Baptist Church — 8.3 mi
• Hasse Community — 8.4 mi