Brachfield

Brachfield is five miles southwest of Pinehill in far eastern Rusk County. The community was called Murvall, for its location on Murvall Creek, when it was settled in the 1860s. It was preceded by a settlement called Gibson Town. Gibson Creek runs through the land survey on its way to Murvall Creek. Early settlers in the area included the Watkins, Miller, Brown, Welch, Hannah, and Debard families. In 1853 Archibald H. Watkins was appointed postmaster at Murvall. The old Trammel's Trace from Mount Enterprise to Pinehill may have come right through the site, and the trail probably contributed to the town's settlement. From 1892 to 1905 the Rusk County News called the place Needmore, for the community was said to need more of everything. Needmore had a sulfur springs and spa called Welch Springs, and Nathaniel Johnston built a hotel and store there about 1896, the year he was appointed postmaster. The community was renamed again when it was discovered that there was another Needmore in Texas. In 1900 Charles L. Brachfield stood on a stump and made his first political speech for election as county judge; hence the town's new name. The community had a post office from 1900 to 1906. The highest population recorded for the town was eighty during the 1950s and 1960s, and its residents declined afterward to thirty or fewer. The population in 1990 was thirty. By 2000 the population had increased to forty.