James Hutto was born in Alabama on June 8, 1824; he came to Texas in 1847 and moved his family to Williamson County in 1855.

A slave, Adam Orgain, was the first person to live in the immediate Hutto vicinity, having been placed out on the Blackland prairie by his owner to watch after the cattle and livestock holdings.

In 1876, James Hutto sold 50 acres (200,000 m2) to the Texas Land Company of New York for a town site and railroad right of way.

Other early settlers in the area were the Carpenter, Davis, Evans, Farley, Goodwin, Highsmith, Johnson, Magle, Payne, Saul, Weight, Womack, and Wright families.

Other people living in Hutto during the 1890s included the Armstrongs, the Ahlbergs, M. B. Kennedy, the Hugh Kimbro family, William McCutcheon, Green Randolph, J.

The legend traces its roots back to 1915, when a circus train stopped at Hutto to pick up passengers and let the animals out to feed.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.75 square miles (20.1 km2), all land.