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n 1860, the extension of the railroad lines to Millican led to the biggest boom Brazos County has ever experienced. The county population quadrupled from 612 in 1850, to 2,776
in 1860. By 1861, the Civil War brought to a halt almost all construction in Texas, and the railroad made its terminus at Millican for the duration. By 1861, the county seat of Boonville
had been moved to Bryan, ready for the first Houston and Texas Central train (H&TC), which arrived in 1867. The H&TC expanded northward through Hearne, Corsicana and Dallas by 1872.
(Brazos County History, Brundidge, 1986.) In 1871 Texas Governor Edmund Davis appointed three Commissioners to select a site for the newly established Agricultural and Mechanical College
of Texas (Texas A&M College). The Commissioners chose this location in large part because of the existence of a Houston and Texas Central (H&TC) Railroad line which began in Southeast
Texas and extended through this area to its terminus in Bryan (5 mi. north). Although no railroad depot existed here at the time of Texas A&M's formal opening in 1876, H&TC made regular
stops here for incoming and outgoing college students and faculty. H&TC railroad conductor announcements referring to this stop as College Station gave rise to the name of the surrounding
community. H&TC constructed a new depot about 1900. The H&TC depots and another built by the International & Great Northern (IGN) Railroad just east of this site in 1900 were for many
students who attended Texas A&M the first remembrance of their collegiate experience. Railroad depots owned by the H&TC (later Southern Pacific) and IGN (later Missouri Pacific) maintained
passenger service at this location until 1959. In 1966 the last of the depot structures was razed. (Text of Texas State Historic Marker, College Station Railroad Depots, 1993.)