Billiams Creek, TX

Billiams (Billum) Creek was established about 1840 on Billiams Creek in north central Tyler County. It was at the intersection of the two mail routes across Tyler County before the Civil War and had not only a water mill (combined cotton gin, gristmill, and sawmill) but also a post office and a blacksmith shop. Nearby was one of the earliest churches in Tyler County, the Philadelphia Primitive Baptist Church. Prominent early settlers included Josiah Wheat, Robert Cummins Fulgham, Argulus Parker, Abe Willson, Ben Enloe, and Harmon Frazier. After the Civil War a skirmish known locally as the battle of Billiams Creek occurred when federal authorities indicted six residents for not releasing their slaves and sent soldiers to arrest them. The Billiams Creek men shot all the federal soldiers from ambush and buried them, and their bodies are said never to have been found. The post office was closed in 1866, though the area remained the focus of a dispersed farming community until the 1940s. By the 1980s only a few residents remained in the area, most of whom raised cattle and timber.