POTTSVILLE, TEXAS. Pottsville is at the junction of Farm roads 218 and 2842, on Cowhouse Creek in western Hamilton County. It was named for John S. Potts, an early settler and sheep raiser who arrived in 1872. Edmund T. Goggin donated the townsite, stipulating that liquor would never be sold there. The community's first school started in 1876, and its successor was still functioning in 1986. A post office was established at the town in 1879. In 1913 a fire destroyed all the local businesses, and in 1944 a cyclone caused one death and great property damage. The community's cotton gin closed in 1931. The population of Pottsville was 200 in 1947, when the town had four businesses. In the 1980s Pottsville had 312 residents, elementary and high schools, three churches, a post office, a feed store, a mill, a garage, a grocery, and a beauty shop. The community still reported a population of 312 in 1990. The population dropped to 100 in 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hamilton County Historical Commission, A History of Hamilton County, Texas (Dallas: Taylor, 1979). Kathleen E. and Clifton R. St. Clair, eds., Little Towns of Texas (Jacksonville, Texas: Jayroe Graphic Arts, 1982).
