The Town of Gause

Gause peaked around 1915, when the Handbook of Texas estimates about 1,000 people lived there, shipping cotton, cottonseed oil and corn. Then the numbers slid. The bank that opened in 1910 shut in 1927. Twenty businesses in the early 1940s dwindled to four in the 1960s, and a population of 750 in the 1940s fell to 278 by the late 1960s and 210 by the early 1970s. The turn came in the late 1980s, when more people chose to live in Gause and drive to jobs at nearby plants; about 400 lived there by the early 1990s.

What the plaque says

The Town of Gause William J. Gause (1829-1914), born in Alabama, moved to Texas in 1849, to the Brazos region in 1856, and to this locality in 1872. Buying lumber in Montgomery, he gave his friend Dan Fowler half in return for hauling it here. The two built the first homes in this settlement. In 1873, Gause gave right of way and 100 acres of land to the International & Great Northern Railroad, and the town was platted. Gause Post Office opened in 1874, with James S. Reynolds as postmaster. The I. G. N. freighted out great quantities of cotton, and the town thrived. Cotton gins, stores, blacksmith shops, a lumber yard, a bank, hotels, livery stables, a newspaper and other businesses were established. Besides W. J. Gause, civic leaders included Dr. J. E. Brown, Richard Cox, Dr. James dollar, Lafayette Ely, Bill Faubian, Dan Fowler, J. C. Lister, C. C. Moore, Dr. John Porter, Frank Thomas, and T. L. Watts. Churches were organized and a Masonic Lodge chartered. The county's first independent school was established in Gause. Good highways, mechanized farming, and decline of railroading halted commerce in the town of Guase. It survives, however, as a residential site chosen by descendants of the pioneers and by commuters of industrial plants and businesses in this vicinity. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 14 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 16 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 25 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Town of Nashville — 5.0 mi
• City of Hearne — 9.9 mi
• A Century of the Methodist Church — 10.0 mi
• First Baptist Church of Hearne — 10.0 mi