Cypress Mill Last Day [Cover]

Object/Artifact

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The Lew Anvil Collection

Name/Title

Cypress Mill "Last Day" [Cover]

Description

A “Last Day” cover postmarked on December 31, 1958, on the final day of business of the Cypress Mill Post Office. Signed by the postmaster.

Context

Cypress Mill is on Farm Road 962 thirteen miles northeast of Johnson City in northeastern Blanco County. A mill was constructed at the site on Cypress Creek in the late 1860s. The community that developed there was at first called Fuchs' Mill for Wilhelm Fuchs and his family, early owners of the mill. The name Cypress Mill came into use after a post office opened in 1874. By the mid-1880s the community had grist and saw mills, a cotton gin, and 130 residents. The principal shipments made by area farmers were cotton, cattle, and wool. Cypress Mill reached a peak population of 200 around 1900 but began to decline soon thereafter, and by the early 1940s its population had fallen to thirty. Its population rose to sixty by the late 1940s, and several houses and a business marked the community on county highway maps. The community's population was reported at seventy-six in 1970 and at fifty-six from 1980 through 2000. The Cypress Mill post office was discontinued in the late 1980s.

Category

Cotton Culture, Longhorn Cattle
Agriculture, TSHA Categories