Biohazard Cleanup Near West Gause Gause, TX

Gause is an unincorporated community in Milam County, Texas, on U.S. Highway 79 about sixteen miles southeast of Cameron, the county seat.

Gause is named for William J. Gause, a settler who arrived in 1872 and built a home out of lumber hauled from Montgomery.

In 1873 William J. Gause gave the International-Great Northern Railroad a right-of-way and 100 acres of land, and the railroad town of Gause grew up around the line.

A post office opened at Gause in 1874, and a schoolhouse that doubled as a church was built in 1876.

By 1884 Gause had about 300 residents, two steam-powered cotton gins, grist and saw mills, and two churches, and it served as a shipping point for Milam County farmers sending out corn, cotton, and cottonseed oil.

The Gause Independent School District, established in 1905, was the first independent school district in Milam County.

Gause reached its peak around 1915 with an estimated 1,000 residents, then declined for decades, especially after its bank closed in 1927.

The Census Bureau counted Gause as a census-designated place for the first time in the 2020 census, recording 275 residents.

Despite never incorporating, Gause still keeps its own working post office (ZIP code 77857), and in recent decades it has drawn new residents who live there and commute to jobs at nearby industrial plants.