Dime Box Texas

This is one of those towns that you just have to stop and visit awhile. In the normal rush of our lives you would fly right by the sign on Hwy 21 pointing the three miles down FM 141 to Old Dime Box. For you city folk, FM stands for “Farm to Market”.

        That’s right; there are two Dime Boxes, Old and New. And neither one bigger than a minute, so why two towns you ask? Railroad! You see in 1913 the Southern Pacific Railroad came within three miles of Dime Box and most moved over by the tracks for the convenience and the promise of prosperity. Enough remained at the old site that they settled on Old and New to distinguish between them.

        It didn’t start out as Dime Box though. Prior to 1877 and a Federal Post Office opening it was known as Brown’s Mill and for some reason a lot of the mail was sent to Brownville. And although they don’t look anything alike written they do sound a lot alike. The Post Office back then was real particular about names that caused misdirection of the mail and the name Dime Box was submitted and accepted.

        The name came about from the practice of dropping a dime in a box at Brown’s Mill to get a letter delivered over at Giddings, this was before the Federal Post Office opened.

        If you get the chance to visit please do, you owe it to yourself to be able to stop the rush of your life to be able to hear the song of nature all around you, to enjoy the sights and smells that only the fresh air of a small town can afford you. The people are friendly and you will hear stories that warm your heart and make you smile.

        Now you might think nothing very special ever happened in such an out of the way little town in the middle of a State the size of Texas, but you would be wrong. Just remember we’re talking about Texas, and everything is special in Texas. And so is Dime Box.

        In 1944 the March of Dimes Campaign and the town was featured in Life magazine as the Postmaster General himself stood on the front porch of the store holding an oversized mailbox that ended up at the Whitehouse. So how’s that for special?

        Many people came and went over the years; some moved on to great things and others regular lives we can only imagine. But remember this; it is only the size of your dreams that will limit you, not the size of the town you come from.

From somewhere on the backroads.

The Demonmaster

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