Selden

Selden began as a ranch. The Handbook of Texas says the town was named for John M. Selden and the ranch he established in 1855; the plaque gives the earlier name Garrett Springs, for J. B. Garrett. A Sims Creek church was established in 1881, and a post office opened in 1890 with H. Mosely as postmaster. The Handbook counts ninety-two people in 1900 and twenty-five in 1910, and the post office closed in 1915. The town had sixty residents in 1947, seventy-one in 1980 and 1990, and by 2000 only seven.

What the plaque says

Selden This community was originally named Garrett Springs for early settler J. B. Garrett who owned land along Sims Creek. It became known as Selden after the mid 1850s, when John Selden moved to the area. The settlement developed as an important early commercial center for nearby farms. It was the site of a grist mill and cotton gin, as well as a school, post office, lodge hall, and stores. The history of Selden is a reminder of the important role farming communities played in the agricultural development of Erath County. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dublin Bottling Works — 14 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.
• Dinosaur Valley State Park — 19 mi
  Theropod and sauropod trackways of about 113 million years ago in the bed of the Paluxy River, a National Natural Landmark where R. T. Bird found the first distinct sauropod tracks in 1937.
• Granbury Courthouse Square — 28 mi
  A National Register square of limestone storefronts around W. C. Dodson's Second Empire courthouse, whose clock tower citizens saved after a 1968 tornado.
• Meridian State Park — 30 mi
  A 505-acre park in Bosque County where World War I veterans of a Civilian Conservation Corps company dammed Bee Creek in 1933-34 for a 72-acre lake and cut stone buildings around it.

More markers nearby

• Duffau Baptist Church — 6.6 mi
• Clairette Cemetery — 7.2 mi
• Stephenville Masonic Lodge #267 — 7.6 mi
• Duffau Cemetery — 8.0 mi