About Us :
S. M. Merkel gave to us our beginning setting up home in the small village. In 1882 the first post office was established as well as the first church, a Methodist church organized by Rev. R. F. Dunn. 1884 saw the first public school created as Merkel Common School District Number 11, and in 1885 the first public school building built on the corner of Runnels and North Second Street with donations of lumber, hardware and labor. Merkel's beginning is generally associated with the coming of the railroad which reached Abilene in 1881 and moved to Merkel soon after.

The people came to the Merkel area, first drifting into the area as hunters, then settling along the creeks and waterways. Some came for land, some came for adventure, and some came for health reasons. Most that came seeking homes and a better way of life stayed to settle the little community grow. Churches, schools, farms, ranches, and other business were a part of the little village of Merkel, a shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railroad, more than twenty