BLANKET, TEXAS. Blanket is on U.S. Highway 67/377 ten miles northeast of Brownwood in eastern Brown County. According to some accounts Blanket Creek was named in 1852 by a group of surveyors who came upon a band of Tonkawa Indians who had been caught in a downpour and had spread their blankets over sumac bushes near the creek for protection. Later the name was transferred to the community that developed on its banks. Two of the earliest settlers in the area were F. M. Cross and Dan Pinkard, who arrived in 1862. Pinkney Anderson established a store in 1873 and was the first postmaster when a post office was established in 1875. When the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad was extended from Comanche to Brownwood in 1891, Blanket was moved from its former site to its present location. It had a population of 304 in 1904 and 472 in 1929. In the 1930s it had twenty businesses and a population of more than 300. By 1970 it had seven businesses and its population remained at around 300. In the late 1980s Blanket had five businesses and 388 residents, and in 1990 its population was 381. In 2000 the population was 402. Artist Harold O. Kellyqv lived for a while in Blanket.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Thomas Robert Havins, Something about Brown: A History of Brown County, Texas (Brownwood, Texas: Banner Printing, 1958). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).
Jeanne F. Lively
