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History · Smiley

Smiley’s post office opened in 1884

Most of Smiley was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976.

1884first post office
0on the National Register
8%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Smiley began

When was Smiley founded?

1884

The Smiley post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 475142 years
Founding year: the first Smiley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Smiley’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 Smiley are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Smiley’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Smiley, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Smiley yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Smiley is a city in Gonzales County, Texas, United States. Its population was 475 at the 2020 census, down from 549 at the 2010 census. Smiley was established in the early 1870s, when trader and sheepherder John Smiley settled by a long, narrow lake that became known as Smiley's, Smileys, or Smiley Lake. The city is served by the Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District.

Its first post office opened in 1884. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 549 to 475 (-13%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

By decade

Smiley, decade by decade

Today1 recent
TXMap-doton-Smiley2004TXMap-doton-Smiley

Questions about Smiley’s history

What year was Smiley founded?

The Smiley post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

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

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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 Wikimedia Commons (1), 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.