Mudville (Brazos Bottoms/Steele’s Store)
Brazos County, TX
Status: Located
Year Established: Unknown
Council of Governments: BVCOG
Public History: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvmwb;
This Mudville was settled as early as the 1860s and was named for it’s most abundant natural resource. In 1878 a post office was opened in Henry Steele’s store and the names Steele’s Store and Mudville have been used interchangeably from the beginning.
In 1884 Steele’s Store/ Mudville had an estimated population of 150 with another store beside Steele’s and several other business. The population was mostly Black, but Italian immigrants also contributed to the population. In 1891 the Hearne and Brazos Valley Railway came through and by 1896 the population had swelled to 350.
The post office closed in 1950, and the school consolidated with Bryan ISD in the 1960s. The community is still included on TxDoT’s county maps in 1998 although there is no visible town center.
The town received a historical marker in 1992;
Mudville, also known as Steele’s Store, is located at the intersection of farm roads 50 and 1687, on the Southern Pacific Railroad eleven miles west of Bryan in far western Brazos County. The area was settled in the 1860s and became known as Mudville for the mud common to this floodplain of the Brazos and Little Brazos rivers. In 1878 a post office, called Steele’s Store, was opened in the store owned by Henry B. Steele, and the names Steele’s Store and Mudville seem to have been used interchangeably by local residents, with Mudville sometimes referring to the wider rural area served by the community. According to some sources the population was three-fourths black at this time. Many Italians were farming in the area. In 1884 Steele’s Store had an estimated population of 150 and two churches, three cotton gins, a steam gristmill, and two general stores. The community became a station on the Hearne and Brazos Valley Railway in 1891, and by 1896 claimed a population of 350. In 1904 a school for Whites at Steele’s Store had sixty-eight pupils and one teacher. In 1930 the community comprised an estimated 300 inhabitants and fourteen businesses. In 1940 it had a church, a school, four businesses, and a number of scattered dwellings. The post office closed in 1950, and the school had consolidated with Bryan by the 1960s. In 1988 the community had a number of scattered dwellings and was designated Mudville on maps. In 1992, the Texas Historical Commission placed a historical marker at the site.
Community History: There is/was a place in the Bottoms called Mudville, and two areas in or near Caldwell called Teal’s Prairie and Six Miles, not sure if they were considered Freedom site or share cropper areas but I do know that mostly what was Mudville/Brazos Bottoms is almost gone and there is an area a little further up I think highway 50 toward Mumford that was called “Cabbage Slough” owned mostly by the Colliers and there were little red houses that dotted the landscape. There was also an area off of highway 21 near the bridge that separated Brazos and Burleson counties that’s almost gone.