Originally, Millsap was established as a relay station on the stagecoach route that ran from Weatherford to Palo Pinto. The town was named for Fuller Millsap, who moved to Texas in 1849 and to Parker County in 1856. A Millsap post office opened in 1877.
In 1880, the tracks of the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived. By the 1890s, Millsap was serving area farmers as a retail and shipping point. Within a decade the town had a bank, more than a dozen other businesses, three churches, a ten-grade educational institution called Millsap College, and a weekly newspaper, the Millsap News. The community population increased from an estimated 100 in 1890 to 800 in 1920.
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 Wikimedia Commons (4), 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.
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