DUFFAU, TEXAS. Duffau is on Farm Road 1824 and Duffau Creek, fifteen miles southeast of Stephenville in Erath County. The town was named for Duffo, an Indian buried nearby. By 1860 a post office had been established at the community, and by the mid-1880s Duffau was a flourishing town of about 350 with steam flour mills and cotton gins, four churches, a hotel, a district school, three doctors, and two deputy sheriffs. Railroad routes bypassed Duffau, however, and by the mid-1890s it had begun to decline. In 1940 it was a small trading center with a post office, seven businesses, and 110 residents. By 1980 its population had declined to seventy-six. It was still reported at that level in 2000.

Susan Shaw