Near the steep, muddy banks of the Colorado River, halfway between Brownwood and Brady, are the remnants of a once prosperous and busy town. My husband and I drove out that way to take a look, and I was struck by how many abandoned buildings there are, some of which look quite old. The buildings tell a story that perhaps no one quite remembers, as information on the history of Winchell is sparse and often conflicting.
Winchell, as it’s called today, or Brown Town, Broadtown or even Midway, as it may have been called in the past, was founded “sometime before 1900”, according to Wikipedia. The honest truth is, no one seems to know exactly when Winchell was founded or precisely why it’s called Winchell. “First named either Broadtown for E. J. Broad who built a store there, or Brown Town for a man who built the store, the town was founded about 1900. The name was changed to Winchell in 1903 probably in honor of B. L. Winchell, president of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway, which had built through the town on its way to Brady,” says the TSHA website.
A July 1977 issue of the Brownwood Bulletin contains an article regarding the town’s history. The writer describes a conversation he had with an older resident of the town. “When we stopped by Winchell some time ago, we talked with Wesley Adams, whose kinfolk have been ‘round these parts for quite a spell. Mr. Adams said that, to his recollection, the town started about 1880 and by 1900, when Adams’ grandfather came out here from Kentucky, cotton had become king and there were two cotton gins, a bank a newspaper, a barber shop and, reportedly, two or three saloons and a dance hall. There were also several other businesses including Tolbart’s store, McAulley’s furniture store and John Burton’s drug store. Burton’s wife was the music teacher. Belmont Salmons managed the lumberyard and was married to Pelham Reed, the doctor’s daughter. The town was also reputed to have the first telephone service in the county.”
“The J.D. Blackrock and the George Parr families came into the area in 1904. Blackrock opened a store that handled dry goods, millinery and groceries. Effie Blackrock, who is now 87 and lives in Raymondsville, was married to J.D. in 1912 by Rev. Priddy, pastor of the Baptist church,” the article went on to say.
A July, 1965 edition of the same paper describes an incident explaining how the name Winchell came about. “When the Frisco Railroad extended from Brownwood to Brady, it passed directly through Dr. Abney’s place on the Colorado and he and a neighboring rancher, E. H. Broad, were in competition to build towns along the railroad. Broad proposed a town called Broadtown and Dr. Jim [Abney] proposed his own town, to be called Winchell, after the president of Frisco. According to Abney, the railroad endorsed Winchell [unsurprisingly] but did not back Broadtown. Lots began to sell at Winchell and a little town grew up. Some houses originally built at Broadtown were moved into Winchell and a stone store building there fell into decay. The old walls can still be seen about a mile north of Winchell on Highway 277. Abney says, ‘A small newspaper, a blacksmith shop and other enterprises followed in quick order. It soon became known that three ginners had selected and bought locations to build cotton gins. Two churches and a parsonage for each church were already under construction. In short, Winchell had already begun to grow and thrive like a green bay tree.’”
I saw references to ‘West Broadtown’ and ‘East Winchell’. Maybe the disagreement on what to call the town accounts for the lack of factual information about its origin. Dr. Abney’s suggestion eventually won out, however, and the town was officially called Winchell in 1903. Sadly, a large portion of it was destroyed in a fire, again at an unspecified date, apparently sometime between 1924 and ‘25.
Winchell is rumored to have been a hotspot for bootleggers carrying their wares across the Colorado during prohibition. After the fire, the town was never rebuilt, and the population dwindled from a peak of 300 people in 1914 to somewhere around 20 scattered homes in the area today. Johnny Kirklin of Bangs told me he remembers his grandfather used to tell about staying at the livery stable in Winchell on trips from Brady to Brownwood. I am not sure which buildings are which out there, but wonder if the old stable is one of the broken down ones. It would be interesting to try to identify some of the buildings that are scattered around the town’s central location in order to create more of a record for this interesting and roughly picturesque Colorado River town.
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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com. Comments regarding her columns can be emailed to [email protected].
