CANAAN SWITCH, TEXAS. Canaan Switch was a flag station on the Houston and Texas Central Railway six miles south of Mexia in Limestone County. Its early residents were former slaves from nearby plantations. In 1888 a post office called Dump was briefly established at Canaan Switch with Zachariah H. Williams as postmaster. After the office was discontinued, mail for the community was sent to Groesbeck. The community's population was given as ten in 1889. Little remained in the area by the 1940s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Walter F. Cotton, History of Negroes of Limestone County from 1860 to 1939 (Mexia, Texas: Chatman and Merriwether, 1939). John J. Germann and Myron Janzen, Texas Post Offices by County (1986).

Vivian Elizabeth Smyrl