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Merkel is a town in Taylor County, Texas. The population was 2,637 at the 2000 census. MERKEL, TEXAS. Merkel, off Interstate Highway 20 seventeen miles west of Abilene in northwestern Taylor County, was founded in the early 1880s when the Texas and Pacific Railway arrived; it was first known as the "Windmill Town." The community, a shipping point like many other towns in the area, was renamed in 1881 for its first settler, S. M. Merkel. J. L. Vaughan, the railroad agent, became postmaster and telegraph operator in June 1883, when the post office opened. The city of Merkel was incorporated in 1906. www.tshaonline.org