UTLEY, TEXAS. Utley, seven miles northwest of Bastrop in western Bastrop County, was established in the early 1850s by James Harvey Wilbarger as the site of his commissary and trading post for plantations in the area. It was named for Wilbarger's wife, whose maiden name was Utley. In 1892 a post office was established, and four years later the community had two general stores. In 1914 Utley had a population of twenty-five and a general store. The post office was discontinued in 1922 but reestablished in 1923. In the 1930s Utley had a school for Hispanic children. From the 1930s into the 1940s the population was listed at 250. It dipped to thirty in the late 1940s, and estimates remained at this number through 1990, except for a brief rise to fifty in the late 1960s. By 2000 the population had returned to fifty.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: William Henry Korges, Bastrop County, Texas: Historical and Educational Development (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1933). Bill Moore, Bastrop County, 1691-1900 (Wichita Falls: Nortex, 1977).

Paula Mitchell Marks