Settlers began arriving in this area of Comanche County in the 1870s, including members of the Blankenship family, who inherited land granted to brothers Christopher and A.K. Clark for Republic of Texas military service. The first settlement, named Evergreen and located about three-fourths of a mile northeast of this site, included homes, a store, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, and school. In the 1880s, after a new road opened between Comanche and Hamilton, Evergreen's citizens moved their town to this site to be on the route, and a U.S. post office opened in January 1888 bearing the name of postmaster Samuel Gustine. By the early 20th century, Gustine had homes, churches, and businesses including two cotton gins, three poultry companies, a grist mill, retail stores, telephone and electric utilities, a newspaper, and a bank. The Cotton Belt Railway built a line through the area in 1910, bringing an economic boom until service was discontinued in the 1930s, and State Highway 36 was later built on the railroad right-of-way, maintaining the town's most important transportation route.