Madisonville Began With 200 Acres and a Log Courthouse

Madison County was formed from pieces of Grimes, Walker, and Leon counties in 1853. The county and its seat were named for President James Madison. The new town did not begin with much: Job Starks Collard donated a 200-acre tract, and lots went on sale that summer.

The site worked for two plain reasons. It sat near the county's center, and a stream-fed lake supplied fresh water just northeast of town. A log courthouse rose on the central square in 1854, along with a post office. In 1903, an International-Great Northern branch from Navasota reached Madisonville. Land, water, courthouse, railroad: that small chain explains why the county seat took hold where it did.

The railroad did not last forever. By 1904, the town had an estimated 833 residents, but trucks and buses later took more of the traffic. State Highway 90 was paved through town in 1929, and the Navasota-Madisonville branch was abandoned in 1944. That is the nice turn in the story: the train helped Madisonville grow, but the original land-and-water choice outlasted the tracks.