Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Caddo Mills

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
C−History
History · Caddo Mills

Caddo Mills’ post office opened in 1879

More historic than 21% of U.S. towns · #325 of 642 in Texas. What drives it

Most of Caddo Mills was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1997. Below: maps from 1962 on and the census since 1940.

1879first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Michael Barera · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Caddo Mills began

When was Caddo Mills founded?

1879

The Caddo Mills post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 390 in 19402020 census: 1,495147 years

How historic is Caddo Mills?

C−

More historic than 21% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Caddo Mills post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Caddo Mills’ History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Caddo Mills is more historic than 21% of U.S. towns, #325 of 642 in Texas. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Caddo Mills’ overall grade.
Founding era1879, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19403.3% of homes (±3.2) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%C−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical TX town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 21%
NewerOlder
Texas towns of 2,500+ (642)Ahead of 49%

Few Texas towns list much on the Register (a typical Texas town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Caddo Mills’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (34% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Caddo Mills’ 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 Caddo Mills are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Caddo Mills’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Caddo Mills’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Caddo Mills came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Caddo Mills.

Read it all →

Before settlers arrived, the area was the site of a Caddo campground. Pioneers arrived in the late 1850s. About 20 years later, I.T. Johnson and Henry King built a gristmill, and residents started referring to the community as Caddo Mills after the facility. On June 16, 1879, a post office opened. Around this time, the community had about 100 residents, three churches, and a school. In 1886, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway built a line through the town, and the population increased to 500. In the 1890s and early 1900s, the town became home to a newspaper and a bank. The population swelled to 790, but began declining in the 1920s. Caddo Mills had 390 residents and 20 businesses when it was finally incorporated in the early 1940s.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Caddo Mills, 1859 to 1962

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1859Post officeThe Caddo Villa post office opens
  3. 1879Post officeThe Caddo Mills post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1901Born hereGuy Benton Johnson is born here
  6. 1917Born hereDeWitt Hale is born here
  7. 1962On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Caddo Mills, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Caddo Mills November 2015 3 (Main Street)2015Caddo Mills November 2015 3 (Main Street)Caddo Mills November 2015 2 (Main Street)2015Caddo Mills November 2015 2 (Main Street)Caddo Mills November 2015 1 (City Hall and Mona Lisa Pizza)2015Caddo Mills November 2015 1 (City Hall and Mona Lisa …Agilitycrossover2010AgilitycrossoverArmadillo Aerospace Technicians inspect their rocket2009Armadillo Aerospace Technicians inspect their rocketTXMap-doton-CaddoMills2004TXMap-doton-CaddoMills
On the map

Caddo Mills on the map, 1962 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Caddo Mills. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Caddo Mills on the 1962 USGS mapCaddo Mills on the 1985 USGS map1962Greenville SW sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Caddo Mills.

People over time

Caddo Mills, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,600194019601980200020201,495

Grew from 390 people in 1940 to 1,495 in 2020, 3 times over.

9 censuses, 1940–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Caddo Mills’ Wikipedia page.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Caddo Mills

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
D
DeWitt HaleAmerican politician · b. 1917
G
Guy Benton JohnsonSociologist and social anthropologist · b. 1901
Places that used to be

Old place names

Caddo Mills’s post office has been open since 1879.

Caddo Villa
1859–today
Caddo Mills
1879–today
18501940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Caddo Mills’ history

What year was Caddo Mills founded?

The Caddo Mills post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Caddo Mills rank for history?

Caddo Mills is more historic than 21% of U.S. towns, #325 of 642 in Texas. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Caddo Mills?

3% of Caddo Mills’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.2 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1997.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
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).

From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.