The following history of Osceola was obtained from the book,
“ A History of Hill County, Texas”
1853-1980
Pages 262-267
OSCEOLA
by Pearl Mills Henson and M W Mattox
Osceola, a little town in the heart of Hill County’s black land, has had its share of ups and downs in growth.
Beginning with 1846, the first year Texas was a state, county organizations with separate local governments were rapidly formed. In order for a county to be formed, proof of the existence of a group of permanent settlers was required by the state. Hill County was given local county government on May 14, 1853. The most densely populated settlements were made in the vicinities of Hillsboro, Itasca, Whitney and Hubbard.
In the late years of 1850, several families settled on and near the banks of the Cottonwood Creek, ten miles north of Hillsboro, where a band of roving Caddo Indians had previously camped. This settlement was later named Osceola on honor of the Indian Chief, Osceola.
Many dwellings wee erected in the old part of town, which extended south and west of the old Cleburne and Hillsboro road, which is now Highway # 171. Among the earliest settlers were the familiar names of BURGESS, GEE, LAWLESS, STEVENS, TANNER, JONES, COWAN, HEARNE WEATHERED, etc. These families, being somewhat progressive, soon built a church and a school building near the creek and east of the Cleburne and Hillsboro road. The exact location was between the BURGESS- OSA SMITH place and the bridge on Highway 171 south. It was there that the early settlers met and worshipped, regardless of their denominations.
The following is a quote from Capt. B B Paddock in the History of Central and Western Texas, Volume I.
“In 1866, the family of John A. STEVENS settled in the valley between Osceola and Covington. Here John ran the first cultivator ever used in the valley, also he ran one of the first binders ever bought here, and to him belongs the distinction of having fed one of the first bunches of cattle ever fattened on the locality.....