Samuel Mather settled here in 1849 and built a grist mill on the North San Gabriel in 1852. John G. Stewart opened a store near the mill. By 1854, a small log cabin served for church, school, and lodge meetings. A post office was established in 1858 with Mather as postmaster. By 1865, W. L. Brizendine owned the mill and added a cotton gin. Known as Mather's Mill, Brizendine Mill, or Gabriel Mills, the village thrived until the Austin & Northwestern Railroad bypassed it in 1881, after which decline began. The post office closed in 1905, and by the 1920s the town itself had disappeared.