Thomaston was De Witt County's first railroad town. It absorbed Price's Creek, an 1848 settlement of Republic of Texas patriot Judge David Murphree (1811-66). Thomaston was named for State Legislator Nathan Thomas (1809-91), who sold the south part of the townsite, in the Refugio Amador survey, to the Gulf, Western Texas and Pacific Railroad. The north part of the plat, from the Charles Lockhart Survey, was donated by John P. and Mary (Lockhart) Wright. Schoolteacher J. H. Moore and his wife Lou (Thomas) built the first house and owned a cotton gin and grist mill. James Pridgen was the first railroad agent, postmaster, and merchant. At its peak, the town had 500 people.