Nashville (also known as Nashville-on-the-Brazos) was a community, now a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

, on the southeastern bank of the

Brazos River The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 14th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater ...

in present-day

Milam County, Texas Milam County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 24,754. The county seat is Cameron, Texas, Cameron. The county was created in 1834 as a m ...

, United States. The town was surveyed in the fall of 1835, with

Sterling C. Robertson Sterling Clack Robertson (1785–1842) was an empresario from Tennessee, during Mexican Texas. He introduced 600 families into Robertson's Colony. Robertson was also an elected delegate to the Washington-on-the-Brazos convention, signing both the ...

as its founder. It was named in honor of

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, Robertson's birthplace. The town served as the headquarters for

Robertson's Colony Robertson's Colony was an empresario colonization effort during the Mexican Texas period. It is named after Sterling C. Robertson, but had previously been known by other names. It has also been referred to as the Nashville Colony, after the Ten ...

. In January 1836, the settlement was attacked by Indians in the area. Two people were killed, which led to the formation of Robertson's Ranger Company. The rangers constructed Fort Milam at the falls of the Brazos and a second at the three forks of the Little River. Nashville was also designated the seat of justice for Milam municipality in 1836. Following the

Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...

, Nashville was considered by the Texas Congress as a possible site for the capital of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

. From 1837 to 1846, the town served as the Milam County seat. It began to slowly decline after 1846, when the state legislature moved the county seat to

Cameron Cameron may refer to: People * Clan Cameron, a Scottish clan * Cameron (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Cameron (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) ;Mononym * Cam'ron (born 19 ...

. In 1868, the arrival of the

Houston and Texas Central Railroad The Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC) was an 872-mile (1403-km) railway system chartered in Texas in 1848, with construction beginning in 1856. The line eventually stretched from Houston northward to Dallas and Denison, Texas, with branch ...

at nearby Hearne provided the remaining residents with the incentive to move. The town's post office closed that same year. A chapter of the

Daughters of the American Revolution The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (often abbreviated as DAR or NSDAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. A non-p ...

, with additional funds from Milam County, bought seven acres of the former Nashville site and deeded it to the state of Texas in 1927. Nashville was remembered during the Texas Centennial with the addition of several historic markers along

U.S. Highway 79 U.S. Route 79 (US 79) is a United States highway in the Southern United States. The route is officially considered and signed as a north–south highway, but its path is actually more of a diagonal northeast–southwest highway. The highway's n ...

, approximately five miles northeast of Gause and five miles west of Hearne.

References

External links

* * {{coord, 30, 49, 33, N, 96, 39, 10, W, type:city_region:US-TX_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title Ghost towns in Central Texas Ghost towns in Milam County, Texas