GURLEY, TEXAS. Gurley, a stop on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway in Falls County, was the home of the railroad crew and section foreman, and a loading point for cotton and timber. It was named for Edward J. Gurley,^qv a prominent Waco lawyer who received a substantial number of acres in the area as payment for legal services. The community once had a store, and a sawmill was on the Brazos River nearby. Gurley had a post office from 1891 to 1911. In 1904, the only year for which a statistic was available, Gurley's population was estimated at 138. The 1948 county highway map showed a few dwellings at Gurley on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad eight miles northwest of Marlin in northern Falls County, but the 1970 map showed nothing at the site.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Marlin Daily Democrat, November 7, 1938. A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893; rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984).

Jean Warner Epperson