BILLINGTON, TEXAS. Billington, three miles west of Farm Road 936 and twenty-four miles northwest of Groesbeck in Limestone County, was initially called Antioch. It was renamed in honor of Ezekiel Jackson Billington, a Baptist minister and early settler, when the post office was established in 1886. In 1890 the town had a population of twenty-five, a physician, a cattle dealer, and a justice of the peace, as well as Billington, who remained the only local preacher until at least 1896. In 1892 the population was still twenty-five, and a general store had been added. In 1896 the number of residents peaked at forty-five, and a blacksmith shop, a corn and gin mill, and an additional cattle dealership were listed in the town's businesses. The post office closed in 1904, and the mail was routed through Mount Calm. Billington school was consolidated with the Axtell school, and the church was disbanded. Population figures for the 1930s list a low of six residents and a high of twenty. In 1984 Billington was listed as an unincorporated community, but the population was last recorded in 1948 as an estimated twenty. A cemetery and church building marked the location.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carmen Weempe, History of Billington (Billington, Texas, Cemetery Association, 1978).
