The village of "old Smithville" was laid out on 640 acres of land granted to Thomas J. Gazley and Lewis Lomas. The town was located on the Colorado River in the northeast section of present Smithville. There were mercantile stores, dry goods shops and a Masonic Lodge. In 1876, the first post office was established with John Pride Jones as postmaster.
The Taylor, Bastrop and Houston Railroad, later a part of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas system [MKT, "Katy"] arrived in 1886 and the town relocated along the tracks.
Legend has it that a coin was tossed to decide if the name would be changed to Burlesonville for Murray Burleson, who gave the land for the railroad depot. The coin toss resulted in "Smithville" being retained as the name, apparently in honor of pioneer settler William Smith.
The town was incorporated in 1895, and T.C.Collins served as the first mayor . Today, Smithville is a municipality with approximately 3.5 square miles inside the city limits
| HM Number | HMS3B |
|---|---|
| Series | This marker is part of the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail series |
| Tags | |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Friday, October 24th, 2014 at 6:26am PDT -07:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 14R E 677525 N 3321225 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 30.00915000, -97.15935000 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 30° 0.549', W 97° 9.561' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 30° 0' 32.94" N, 97° 9' 33.66" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 512, 830, 979 |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 317 Main St, Smithville TX 78957, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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