Texana Thursday: The Ghost Town of Boonville

A photo of the Texas Centennial marker at Boonville (Facebook photo)

Back in the 19th Century in Texas, if you wanted your community to survive and thrive—to make it—your community needed railroad service.

Not to say that a community couldn’t survive without a railroad. For example, the town of Independence, where Baylor University was established and was also a home for Margaret Houston, wife of Sam Houston, exists today, albeit as an unincorporated community.

But railroads, and the connectivity they provided to other communities in what was a rural state, were crucial for growth and prosperity. Not having one could all but end a community.

Such was the case for Boonville, which today is a ghost town.

Boonville is just east of Bryan. It was named for Mordecai Boon, who was a nephew of the pioneer Daniel Boone. The town name has no “e” after “Boon.”

Boonville was chosen as the Brazos County seat. It served that role until 1866, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway was extended to Bryan. County residents made Bryan the county seat, and it remains such today.

Today a cemetery, which has the graves of such local luminaries as Harvey Mitchell, is all residents of that time might remember.

Mitchell himself was a local luminary and considered the “Father of Brazos County.” He held a number of jobs, including blacksmith, hotel and store owner, justice of the peace, and served as a minister.

A parkway bearing Mitchell’s name runs between Easterwood Airport and the Texas A&M University campus. The community of Harvey, two miles south of Bryan, is also named for him.

Boonville itself might be a ghost town, but it’s not forgotten. A Texas Centennial marker, dedicated in 1836, was placed there. It sits in the Boonville Heritage Park, at 2421 Boonville Road, which has historic structures, interpretative panels, and statues that tell the early history of Brazos County.