I was lucky enough to move to Brownwood, Texas, where my wife Marci grew up. I worked at the Texas Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPS) in Houston until I received my Master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

As late as 1872, Brownwood was a small town with just over 1,000 inhabitants, but in 1876, when the town had an estimated population of 120, the first bank opened. In 1876 a school building was built, which also served as a town hall and church.

The city built its first waterworks in 1886, but a dispute over land and water rights arose and the settlers had to find a new location. Greenleaf Fisk donated 24 hectares to move the county town to the west side of the Bayou, where the site is now. The following year, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe railroads were built through Brownwood, and in 1887 a third railroad, "Brownwood North - South," was built to connect it to the community of Brown County. This short-lived railway lost money and was abandoned in 1927.

Brownwood is served by the following highways: 67, 377, 84 and 87 and the Texas State Highway System. All three highways lead east from the city, with 84 heading southeast to Goldthwaite, where 67 and 377 continue east and west to Fort Bend County and Brown County, respectively.

In Brownwood, at the junction to 377N, you leave San Antonio, then leave the city on the west side, enter Brownwoods and continue on the east side.

From Fort Worth, take 377S to Brownwood and turn left into traffic on the T and then right onto 377N. When you see the clinic on the left and the hospital on the right, leave the clinic on the left to reach the clinics and parking lots.

Restaurants, shops and grocery stores are all within walking distance, meaning you can explore this corner of Central Texas. If you like to go out and have a weekend getaway to Texas, plan your next trip to Brownwood.

Get out of town with spices, jams, candles and other treats made here in Texas, and wine glasses painted by local artists Ted and Martha Shelton. Become part of an experience that you can experience not only in Brownwood, but also in other parts of Central Texas.

This extensive park, located on the banks of Pecan Bayou, is surrounded by hiking trails, a picnic area, picnic tables and plenty of parking. It is one of the oldest parks in Central Texas, which opened in 1938 and now houses more than 1,000 acres of wildlife.

Brownwood is located on the Pecan Bayou, and the two towns are separated by a short stretch of river between the city of Brownwood and neighboring San Antonio.

The bait has no dam in the area, forms Lake Brownwood and has a constant water level year-round, making it one of the most productive waters in Texas.

Grab some fishing gear and a kayak and head to Brownwood Lake, a 1.5-mile stretch of water in the middle of the lake. Throw your fishing rod from the jetty to catch perch, catfish, cappie and perch and look for native wildlife, including white-tailed deer and birds.

On the site of the former Camp Bowie military camp from World War II, the museum features a mini-train that adults and children can ride, as well as an exhibition on the life and work of US Air Force General Fred H. Bowie. Exhibits from World War II and the Bowie camp are part of the museum's Wellness and Recreation Center and Texas Museum of Natural History.

Located on the Howard Payne Campus, the museum features artifacts and photographs dating back to the Plains Indian era. In a building that resembles a medieval European castle and the former Texas State Capitol in Brownwood, Texas, it displays an exhibition about how the early railroads changed the life and America of Brownwood. The John Macarthur Museum of Biblical History is located on the HowardPayne campus.

The university's teams have won the national championship four times, most recently in 2010 and 2011. The school is tied for the second-most state championships in Texas high school football history, the last being in 1981, while Celina won her eighth state championship in 2007.

Less than a quarter of Brown County residents lived in Brownwood in 1900, but nearly half now live in the city, while about half of the county's residents live outside the city. Its growth is also reflected in the changing proportion of the county's population: the population of the city rose from 8,223 in 1920 to 12,789 in 1930, and estimates from the late 1920s suggest that it may have been as high as 15,000. In December 1940, 13,500 workers in the camps exceeded the population of a city in the 1940s; according to some estimates, the war population eventually reached well over 50,000. Despite the postwar depression, it was counted in 1950, at 22,479; estimates for the mid-1960s vary between 10,400 and 20,800.