Burkett is located on Pecan Bayou, on State Highway 206 between Coleman and Cross Plains. The town was named in 1886 for its first postmaster, William Burkett, after the community's original name, Pleasant Valley was rejected by the Post Office. The Allens and the Golsons were some of the earliest settlers, coming to the Burkett area in the 1870s. Today, the Golson family still owns the land that James Golson took possession of in 1879. Allen opened a dry goods store in 1884, after selling merchandise from a wagon for several years.
Surnames of other early settlers in the Burkett area were: Hankins, Sackett, Audas, Cochran, Harris, Wright, Lindley, Mannering, Morgan, Colvin, Brown, Wesley, Gould and Walker.
In the 1910s and 1920s, Burkett was a thriving community with stores, a blacksmith shop, doctors, a lawyer, a barber, a drug store, cotton gins, a cafe and other businesses. The first oil well came in in 1918. In 1923 the road through Burkett was completed; it was blacktoped in 1928. By 1940 Burkett had three churches, a school, five businesses, and 200 residents. The high school closed in 1957; it's students attending schools in Coleman and Cross Plains. In 1958, the new highway - Highway 206 - was completed bypassing the Burkett business district, which by then consisted of three churches, two service stations, a grocery store, gas company, city water works, post office, telephone office and the Burkett Elementary School.
31° 59' 45.528" N, 99° 13' 32.232" W
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