William Frels and his brother John, who arrived in Texas in 1834 on the ship Congress from Germany, founded the settlement sometime around 1837.

After the country gained its freedom, Captain Frels, who had served in the revolutionary army, gave the land for the townsite, a parsonage, a Protestant church, and a cemetery.

The population had grown to the point where a post office was needed by 1847, and a Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church was established by recent Rhineland immigrants.

Community life exhibited the influence of the Texas frontier as well as the German heritage, sustained by an economy centered on small farms akin to those in Germany.

Farmers in the area attribute the creation of the first mechanized cotton distributor and cleaner for gins to Frank Walls, Sr.