Bangs

Bangs is on U.S. highways 67 and 84 and the Santa Fe Railroad six miles west of Brownwood in west central Brown County. The town was named for its location in the Samuel Bangs survey. In 1886 a post office was established there, and in 1892 Bangs had eight businesses and a population of fifty. A school was begun that year. In 1900 the population was 136. By 1915, when the town incorporated, Bangs had 600 residents and twenty-one businesses, including four churches, a bank, and a weekly newspaper. The following year a water system was installed, and natural gas was piped into the community in 1920. The Bangs Independent School District, formed in 1927, eventually consolidated nine other school districts. Highway 67 was built through the town in 1932. After World War II several additions added new housing units to Bangs. Brownwood began supplying Bangs with filtered water in 1946. In 1963 a new high school was built, and passenger train service ended for the community in 1965. In 1973 Bangs became home to the controversial New Testament Holiness Church, led by David Heze Terrell, who also ran World Ministries, Incorporated, of Dallas. Bangs slowly grew to a population of 1,214 in 1970 and 1,716 in 1980, then declined to 1,555 inhabitants in 1990. In 2000 the population grew to 1,620.