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MINK, TEXAS. Mink,
on the banks of Mink Creek twenty-five miles southwest of Conroe in
southwestern Montgomery County, was one of the earliest towns in the
county. Settlement began about 1845 when a man named Mink took up
farming in the area; soon a gristmill was constructed near his
homestead. At first the community was known as Mink Prairie, but by 1850
it was referred to simply as Mink. There was a blacksmith shop in the
settlement by the early 1850s. After the Civil Warqv an
influx of settlers from Tennessee and Kentucky into southwestern
Montgomery County accelerated the development of the community. During
the 1870s a Grange hall was built that also functioned as an
interdenominational church, a schoolhouse, and a civic center. Soon a
cotton gin was established, and a Methodist church was constructed near
the Grange hall. A post office opened in the community in 1885. By 1896
Mink had a general store, two churches, two flour mills, and a
population of 300. In 1902 the International-Great Northern Railroad
constructed its Spring-to-Navasota branch line through southwestern
Montgomery County, bypassing Mink to the north. Its residents and
businesses rapidly moved onto the rail line at the new town of Magnolia
two miles northeast. The Mink post office was discontinued in 1903, and
within a few years the community had been completely abandoned.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Montgomery County Genealogical Society, Montgomery County History
(Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter, 1981).
Christopher Charles
Jackson
See
Town of Magnolia
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