Brazos County, Texas

Brazos County, located between the Navasota and Brazos rivers in southeast central Texas is surrounded by Burleson County to the northwest, Grimes County to the east, Madison County to the northeast, Robertson County to the northwest, and Washington County to the south. Bryan, the county seat and College Station, the largest city are about 100 miles northwest of Houston.

Cities, Towns & Communities

Benchley | Boonville | Bryan – county seat | College Station | Kurten | Millican | Wixon Valley

History

In 1837 most of the area of present-day Brazos County was included in Washington County. The Brazos River, which bisected the latter, proved a serious obstacle to county government, and a new county, Navasota, was formed in January 1841. The first court was held later that year fourteen miles west of the site of present Bryan. The county seat, named Boonville for Mordecai Boon. In January of the following year Navasota County was renamed Brazos County. The county remained overwhelmingly rural in the 1850s; only two families lived in the county seat in 1852, and only two post offices, Boonville and Millican, operated in the county in 1856 .In 1866 the Houston and Texas Central Railroad resumed construction past Millican, and county citizens voted to make a site on the railroad line, the new community of Bryan, their county seat. Both Millican and the former county seat, Boonville, declined rapidly as their inhabitants moved themselves, their goods, and in some cases, the lumber from their homes and stores to Bryan. During the twentieth century, Bryan and College Station played an increasingly important role in the life of the county. After its founding as a railroad town in 1866, Bryan slowly grew to a community of 3,589 in 1900, when approximately one-fifth of county residents lived there. The nearby community of College Station, which grew around Texas A&M after its founding in the 1870s, numbered only 391 inhabitants in 1900.

County Histories

Brazos County History: Rich Past–Bright Future, 1986 by Glenna Fourman Brundidge

Location

Bryan, TX 30° 40′ 27.7104″ N, 96° 22′ 11.8668″ W

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