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–Not graded
History · Richland

Richland’s post office opened in 1878, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1963 on, and the census since 1930.

1878first post office
0on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Richland began

When was Richland founded?

1878

The Richland post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 541 in 19302020 census: 255148 years
Founding year: the first Richland post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Richland’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Richland’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewSeay-Carnfill gusher: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Richland came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Richland.

Read it all →

Richland, at the junction of Interstate 45 and State Highway 14, on Pisgah Ridge twelve miles south of Corsicana in south central Navarro County, was first settled in the late 1840s. Asa Chambers had established a store on the trail from Corsicana to Franklin by 1848, when a post office, named Richland Crossing after nearby Richland Creek, opened in his store. The store, which moved and changed ownership several times, continued to form the nucleus of the community until the early 1870s. When the Houston and Texas Central Railway was built through the area in 1871, the station on the Pisgah Ridge near the store was designated Richland, and a new community began to develop around the depot. A post office named Richland began operating in 1878, and by the mid-1890s the town had two steam gristmills and cotton gins, three general stores, a grocer, two blacksmiths, two saloons, a hardware s…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Richland, 1878 to 1963

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Richland post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1922In the archiveSeay-Carnfill gusher
  5. 1963On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Richland, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s2 items
Seay-Carnfill gusher1922Seay-Carnfill gusherSeay-Carnfill gusher1922Seay-Carnfill gusher
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today3 recent
WS First Baptist Richland Texas (1 of 1)2020WS First Baptist Richland Texas (1 of 1)Love bridge2014Love bridgeTXMap-doton-Richland2004TXMap-doton-Richland
On the map

Richland on the map, 1963 to 1985

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

Richland on the 1963 USGS mapRichland on the 1978 USGS mapRichland on the 1985 USGS map1963Richland 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 Richland.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Seay-Carnfill gusher
Retake this viewSeay-Carnfill gusher, 1922

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Richland’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Richland, census by census

010020030040050060019401960198020002020Peak: 541

Between 244 and 541 people in every census since 1930.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Richland

Nobody well known was born in Richland itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Joe Don BakerAmerican actor · b. 1936
Kenny DorhamAmerican jazz trumpeter, singer, and composer · b. 1924
Mary BrianAmerican actress · b. 1906
Jacqueline LoganAmerican actress · b. 1901
Wesley JohnsonAmerican basketball player · b. 1987
Maceo BastonAmerican basketball player · b. 1976
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

StreetmanIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Richland’s history

What year was Richland founded?

The Richland post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, 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.