Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Thirteen census counts show ups and downs
Rockdale Reporter - March 3, 2011
Page 1-B
The 2010 Census figures are in and Rockdale is within 16 residents of being as large as
its ever been.
At least in a year ending in zero.
The 2010 count showed 5,595 Rockdalians, just 16 behind the all-time high of 5,611,
recorded in 1980.
On this page you can see some historic places in Rockdale from past years that recall
past population eras.
Here are a few facts, some trivial, some not so trivial, about them.
• The first locally-generated photo ever published in The Reporter, of a draft call
during World War I, was taken on the front porch of the H. C. Meyer home.
• Residents of the Ham Branch bottomland took refuge on the third floor of the “Meyer
House” during the 1921 and 1936 floods.
• Lignite was never dug out of the ground with a pick-axe in the Rockdale area, no
matter what artist Maxwell Starr painted in the mural on the post office wall.
• The water well in the center of the 1874 photo remained in the intersection of Main
and Cameron many decades into the 20th Century.
Rockdale Census
1880 - 1,185
1890 - 1,505
1900 - 2,515
1910 - 2,073
1920 - 2,323
1930 - 2,204
1940 - 2,136
1950 - 2,321
1960 - 4,481
1970 - 4,655
1980 - 5,611
1990 - 5,235
2000 - 5,439
2010 - 5,595
All articles from the Rockdale Reporter are published with permission.
All credit for this article goes to
the Rockdale Reporter
All credit for this article goes to
the Rockdale Reporter
At the beginning of 1874 there wasn’t much more to Rockdale than this, looking north on Main from I&GN tracks. By time of 1880 census town grew to 1,185.
.
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