Regency is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Mills County, located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. According to the

Handbook of Texas The ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). History The original ''Handbook'' was the brainchild of TSHA President Wal ...

, the community had a population of 25 in 2000.

History

Regency was originally named Hanna Valley and Hannaville for the local Hanna family. David Hanna and his slaves were among the first settlers here in 1854 until his four brothers and his dad, Jesse, followed suit that next year. They drove

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

s and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

. The female members of the Hanna family convinced the male members to stay in the area because of the

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 500 ...

s. They built the first house in 1856. The

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in La ...

invaded the community in 1862 until the threat of Indian raids disappeared by the next decade, but it only caused more crime among vigilante groups and fought cattle rustling since there were no nearby courthouses. They became criminal mobs terrorizing San Saba County and other surrounding areas until the Texas Rangers came in 1896. Captain William J. McDonald came in May 1897. The community's first store was built in 1871. A post office was established in 1876 and remained in operation until the early 1930s, with Jim Hanna serving as the postmaster. It experienced a two-year interruption. Mail was then routed from Mullin. The community had a population of 50 in 1884. There was another place called Hanna Valley in Texas, so postal authorities accepted the name Regency. The population remained at 50 in 1890 and had a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

and a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

. Five years later, the population jumped to 200 and had a church, a general store, a flour mill and gin, a physician, and a

constable A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in criminal law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions. A constable is commonly the rank of an officer within the police. Other peop ...

. The population plunged to 40 from 1920 to 1940 and had less than a dozen scattered houses in 1936. The store closed in 1971. The population went down to 20 from 1990 through 2000. Regency is home to the Regency Bridge, a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

traveling over the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

between Mills and San Saba counties. It is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Geography

Regency is located on the Colorado River, southwest of Goldthwaite in southwestern Mills County.

Education

Today, the community is served by the Mullin Independent School District.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Mills County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas