Biohazard Cleanup Near Bluff View Brownwood, TX

Brownwood is the county seat of Brown County in Central Texas, and both the city and county are named for Henry Stevenson Brown, a commander in the Texas Revolution era.

Brownwood originally sat east of Pecan Bayou, but after a dispute over land and water rights, settler Greenleaf Fisk donated 60 acres to move the county seat to its present site, and the town incorporated in 1884.

When Brown County was organized in 1857, the hamlet of Brownwood was chosen as its county seat.

Brownwood had 18,862 residents in the 2020 census, making it the commercial hub of a largely rural part of the northern Texas Hill Country.

Brownwood is home to Howard Payne University, a private Baptist university founded in 1889, whose sports teams are the Yellow Jackets.

Two colleges opened in Brownwood in 1889 — Baptist Howard Payne College and Presbyterian Daniel Baker College — and Daniel Baker's campus became part of Howard Payne in 1953.

During World War II, Brownwood hosted the U.S. Army's Camp Bowie, a training camp whose peak complement exceeded 80,000 soldiers.

The Howard Payne University campus holds the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom, a museum featuring recreations of famous rooms in American history and a 32-foot-high mural of Biblical history.

Howard Payne's teams have won national titles in NAIA cross country in 1957 and 1964 and the NCAA Division III women's basketball championship in 2008.

Brownwood sits just 26 miles from the geographic center of Texas, and nearby Lake Brownwood State Park is one of the area's signature recreation spots.