(4 Miles South)
Once a prominent frontier town, Williams Ranch grew up around the homestead of cattleman John Williams (1804-1871), who came to this area in 1855. The community flourished during the Civil War (1861-1865) because of trade with Mexico and by 1874 had stores, saloons, a hotel, mill, and blacksmith shop. In 1875 Henry Ford and J.M. Parks bought most of the land in the village and platted a townsite. They proposed the name "Parksford" but "Williams Ranch" prevailed when the post office opened in 1877. The community was a stagestop and a roundup point on the Western Cattle Trail. It claimed the first hotel, newspaper, telegraph, and public school in Brown and Mills counties. In 1881 it was one of the towns considered as a site for the University of Texas. Williams Ranch reached its peak of activity in the early 1880s, with a population of over 250.| HM Number | HM1ONH |
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| Tags | |
| Marker Number | 5426 |
| Year Placed | 1976 |
| Placed By | Texas Historical Commission |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Saturday, October 17th, 2015 at 9:02pm PDT -07:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 14R E 532146 N 3491441 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 31.55751667, -98.66128333 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 31° 33.451', W 98° 39.677' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 31° 33' 27.06" N, 98° 39' 40.62" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 325 |
| Which side of the road? | Marker is on the right when traveling East |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near US-183, Mullin TX 76864, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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