RATLER, TEXAS. Ratler, which may also have been known as Jones Valley, was a farm community eleven miles southwest of Goldthwaite on the Colorado River in Mills County. A post office was established in 1892. By 1915 the community had two stores, a cotton gin, a gristmill, a school, and a population of thirty-five. The Willis mill and vineyards also produced wine. After 1915 the town quickly declined. The school was consolidated with Goldthwaite schools, and the post office closed in 1929. In 1990 Ratler was not listed on maps.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Ed Ellsworth Bartholomew, 800 Texas Ghost Towns (Fort Davis, Texas: Frontier, 1971). Flora Gatlin Bowles, A No Man's Land Becomes a County (Austin: Steck, 1958).

John G. Johnson