History:

In 1825, Robert Leftwich, representative of the Texas Association of Nashville, Tennessee, was able to receive a land grant to colonize the Milam County area from Mexico.  The boundaries for this land grant "followed the Navasota River, turned southwest along the San Antonio road to the divide between the Brazos and the Colorado rivers, then northwest to the Comanche Trail, and east back to the Navasota".

In 1827, Sterling Robertson took over the colonization effort but the area was not progressing and the land grant was revoked in 1830.  Sam Houston and his business partner, Samuel May Williams, tried to get the land grant transferred to them from the Mexican government in 1831, but Mexico did not like Houston.  In 1834, Sterling Robertson took back control of the land grant and the area started to grow with individuals coming to the Milam County area.

At the time of the colonization the area (colony) was known as Municipality of Viesca to the Mexican government.  In 1835, it was renamed the Municipality of Milam by the legislative body of the Provisional Government of Texas in honor of Benjamin Rush Milam. The area was not known as Milam County until the first Congress of the Republic of Texas, in which the municipality was named.

"At that time the boundaries of the county were roughly the same as those of the colony granted to Leftwich, comprising one-sixth of the land area of Texas. In addition to the present Milam County, the counties of Bell, Bosque, Burleson, Coryell, Erath, Falls, Hamilton, Hood, Jones, McLennan, Robertson, Shackelford, Somervell, Stephens, and Williamson were eventually carved out of the original Milam County. Brazos, Brown, Burnet, Callahan, Comanche, Eastland, Haskell, Hill, Johnson, Lampasas, Lee, Limestone, Mills, Palo Pinto, Parker, Stonewall, Throckmorton, and Young counties also received land from Milam County. By 1850, with the exception of a small area between Williamson and Bell counties, Milam County had been reduced to its present size"