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CHistory
History · Valley Mills

Valley Mills’ post office opened in 1867

More historic than 30% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Most of Valley Mills was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1958. Below: 1 old photo or paper.

1867first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Valley Mills’ archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Valley Mills began

When was Valley Mills founded?

1867

The Valley Mills post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 1,229159 years

How historic is Valley Mills?

C

More historic than 30% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

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

What drives Valley Mills’ History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Valley Mills is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Valley Mills’ overall grade.
Founding era1867, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19409.4% of homes (±6.0) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%B−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 30%
NewerOlder

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 Valley 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 still be C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.0 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 Valley Mills’ past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Valley Mills’ homes were built before 1958.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Valley Mills’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewValleymillselementaryschool: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Valley Mills came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Valley Mills.

Read it all →

Valley Mills was named for a flour mill established on the banks of the Bosque River in 1867 by Dr. E.P. Booth and Asbury Stegall.

In 1881, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway (GC&SF) laid tracks a mile south of the community, across the Bosque River. Merchants, hoping to benefit from the railroad, began moving their stores across the river, to the tracks.

On February 17, 1882, a cyclone (tornado) hit the new townsite, destroying a large number of buildings. Nevertheless, the remaining residents from the community's original site moved across the river and rebuilt their homes. Thus, by the end of 1882 Valley Mills had extended into McLennan County.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Valley Mills, 1867 to 1975

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1867Post officeThe Valley Mills post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1950Born hereKen Sanders is born here
  5. 1975Born hereDonnie Sadler is born here
By decade

Valley Mills, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
ValleymillselementaryschoolDate?Valleymillselementaryschool
Today4 recent
January 15 tornado track2025January 15 tornado trackValley Mills Texas nosig (1 of 1)2020Valley Mills Texas nosig (1 of 1)Valley Mehtodist Church ws (1 of 1)2020Valley Mehtodist Church ws (1 of 1)TXMap-doton-ValleyMills2004TXMap-doton-ValleyMills
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.

Valleymillselementaryschool
Retake this viewValleymillselementaryschool

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

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

2 famous people were born in Valley Mills

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

See all →
D
Donnie SadlerAmerican baseball player · b. 1975
K
Ken SandersAmerican football player · b. 1950

Questions about Valley Mills’ history

What year was Valley Mills founded?

The Valley Mills post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Valley Mills rank for history?

Valley Mills is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. 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 Valley Mills?

9% of Valley Mills’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1958.

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 (5), 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.