Godley is on State Highway 171, Farm roads 2331 and 917, and the tracks of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad nine miles northwest of Cleburne in northwestern Johnson County. It was established in 1886 and named for R. B. Godley, a Cleburne lumber merchant who donated an eight-acre tract for a town site and twenty acres of land as a right-of-way to the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. A station was constructed in 1886. By 1888, when the post office opened, Godley had a gristmill, three cotton gins, and two dairy-processing plants. Four years later it had two general stores. By the mid-1920's the population was 613. In 1930 it was 378, and twenty-two rated businesses operated locally. In the 1940's the town had a population of 317 and twenty businesses. By 1956 it had a population of 424 and sixteen businesses, and by 1990 it had 569 people and twelve businesses.