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History · Beckville

Beckville’s post office opened in 1857

Most of Beckville was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978.

1857first post office
0on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Beckville began

When was Beckville founded?

1857

The Beckville post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 722169 years
Founding year: the first Beckville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Beckville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Beckville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Beckville’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
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The story

How Beckville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Beckville.

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Named after early settler Matthew W. Beck who arrived sometime around 1850. A local post office opened in 1857, and by 1885 the community had two churches, two steam gristmills, three general stores, a hotel, a blacksmith, and an estimated population of seventy-five. When the Texas, Sabine Valley and Northwestern Railway was built through the county in 1886, the townspeople demanded such high prices for their property that railroad officials bypassed it a mile to the north. Joe Biggs, who owned the land in that area, sold it to the railroad and laid out a new townsite. Within a short time most of the businesses were moved to the railroad and the old Beckville was completely deserted. The first Beckville school was built in 1889, and by 1897 the town had a three-teacher school with a total enrollment of 151. In 1914 the population reached 750. In 1917 a fire destroyed a part of the busin…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Questions about Beckville’s history

What year was Beckville founded?

The Beckville post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.