Round Timber Community

The Handbook of Texas credits the first permanent settlement to John W. Stevens, who built a cabin here in 1874, and says Col. C. C. (Lum) Mills, driven away by raids after trying to settle in the late 1850s or early 1860s, returned in 1875. It ties the name to two round clumps of trees. When the Wichita Valley line reached Seymour in 1890, most of Round Timber's residents moved there, and in the mid-1890s the community moved four miles northwest, where it prospered for some years. It had twenty-five people in 1940 and two in 2000.

What the plaque says

Named for round clumps of oaks. Pioneered by C. C. (Lum) Mills, 1863, but soon abandoned to Indians, site became the first permanent settlement in Baylor County when reopened in 1874 by T. K. Hamby, C. C. and W. B. Mills, John W. Stevens and Tom Whitworth. Post Office opened in 1879 with A. C. Burnham as postmaster. In school built in 1879, first teacher was Eliza Mitchell. Town had stores, barber and blacksmith shops, 1880s. The church was built by Methodists, 1879, sold to Baptists, 1933. The burial ground, dating from 1870, was deeded 1962 by J. Hop Parker to the cemetery association. Incise on back: Marker sponsored by Harry and Helen Portwood. 1972.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Belknap — 27 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Royal Theater — 28 mi
  Archer City's movie house, burned in 1965, given a false front for The Last Picture Show and brought back by the town in the 1990s as a working stage on Main Street.

More markers nearby

• Westover — 5.7 mi
• St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church — 8.0 mi
• Megargel — 8.5 mi
• Edward D. and Mary S. Miller — 14 mi