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Milford History
in a Pecan shell
Cheap land prices (.50 an acre) in the 1850s attracted an influx
of settlers who migrated from Cherokee
County.
In 1854, a townsite was set up on high ground and named Milford.
William R. Hudson, the town's developer had read about a thriving
town in Massachusetts and named the community after it. Hudson's
combined residence and general store, was built; Hudson built a
store/residence/post office.
In 1892 Milford's population reached 800. It was home to a community-financed
school called the Milford Academy and the other with the
seemingly fictitious name of Mollie Poe's Private Lone Star Institute.
A two-story building serving multiple community functions was burned
during the Civil War. The Dallas and Waco Railway reached
Milford when they had a population of just 150 and in the 20th Century,
Milford became a stop on the Waco - Dallas Interurban (1926).
In 1902 a Presbyterian College for women opened although
it closed in 1929 - an early victim to the Great Depression.
The population peaked at 1,200 in 1929 - falling to just 717 in
1931. It reached rock-bottom in 1968 when only 490 Milfordians called
the town home.
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Main Street
Milford, Texas Circa 1908
Photo/postcard courtesy of Bill Parrish, Meadow Vista,
CA.
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Hanging
out at the icehouse, Milford, Texas
Note Dr. Pepper sign |
| Pedestrians,
sidewalk, and dentist office |
| Corner
drug store and church |
| The
entire postcard showing main street Milford |
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