History
Millican: the railroad town that boomed and faded in Brazos County
Millican was briefly one of the largest towns in Texas during the Civil War era when it was the Houston and Texas Central Railroad's northern end point, but it faded after the rails pushed north.
Robert Hemphill Millican and his son Dr. Elliott Millican settled the area in the 1820s. When the Houston and Texas Central Railroad made Millican its northern end point around 1860, the town grew fast into a major supply depot. At its peak it was reportedly the largest city north of Houston and Galveston. By 1864 it had about 3,000 residents and served as a Confederate training camp for thousands of troops.
The fall was quick. When the railroad pushed north to Bryan around 1866, businesses followed. A yellow fever outbreak hit in 1867 and killed many residents. Race violence during Reconstruction in 1868 cut the population to about 1,200. Then Highway 6 bypassed the town in 1930.
Today Millican is a small community in southern Brazos County with roughly 108 to 240 residents, a post office, a volunteer fire station, and churches. Its story shows how railroad routing decided which Texas towns grew and which did not. The TSHA Handbook of Texas has the full history.
Source to confirm: TSHA – Millican, Texas