ROUND TIMBER, TEXAS. Round Timber, on Farm Road 2374 near the Throckmorton county line in southeast Baylor County, became the first permanent settlement in the county in 1874 when John W. Stevens built a cabin. Col. C. C. (Lum) Mills tried to settle there in the late 1850s or early 1860s, but hostile Indians forced him away; he returned in 1875. The site was named for two round clumps of trees useful for building material. In the mid-1890s the community was moved four miles northwest, where it prospered as a trading center for some years. The population declined to twenty-five in 1940 and ten in 1980. In 1990 it was recorded as eight. The population was two in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baylor County Historical Society, Salt Pork to Sirloin, Vol. 1: The History of Baylor County, Texas, from 1879 to 1930 (Quanah, Texas: Nortex, 1972); Vol. 2: The History of Baylor County, Texas, from 1878 to Present (1977).

William R. Hunt