Wellborn

Wellborn, on Farm Road 2154 (known as Wellborn Road) and the Southern Pacific Railroad four miles east of College Station and eight miles west of Millican in southern Brazos County, came into existence in 1867 as a railroad construction camp of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. It was part of the northeast corner of the A. M. McMahon grant. John and Thomas Royder of Rock Prairie Community established the first store and erected a cotton gin and lumberyard. The name of the town has been attributed to a well at the construction camp, a foreman named E. W. Wellborn, and W. W. Wilburn who owned the land in the area before the Civil War. Wellborn became a shipping point for cattle. In 1868 the community name used in the post office petition was Wellborn's Station, but the possessive was dropped after 1871. By 1885 the village had a population of fifty, a school, two churches, a steam gristmill, and a cotton gin. In 1904–05 the school had forty-four pupils and one teacher. The population reached 400 by 1910 but had declined to forty by 1950, probably due to the rise of the nearby Bryan-College Station. By 1987 the population in Wellborn was 100. In 1990 the town had twenty businesses, a community center, a post office, and the Wellborn Water Utilities. The population remained at 100 in 2000.