DELBA, TEXAS. Delba is on State Highway 78 five miles east of Leonard in southwestern Fannin County. It was formed in the mid-1870s when a Methodist church was established and a school opened. In 1879 postal service to the community began. By the mid-1880s Delba had fifty residents, a cotton gin, a steam flour mill, and nine businesses. Because of the decline in the community's population the post office closed in 1906. By the mid-1930s the population was reported at twenty-five, and by 1980 was reported at twenty, where it remained in 1990. In the early 1990s Delba served as a community center for area farmers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: W. A. Carter, History of Fannin County, Texas (Bonham, Texas: Bonham News, 1885; rpt., Honey Grove, Texas: Fannin County Historical Society, 1975). Fannin County Folks and Facts (Dallas: Taylor, 1977).

David Minor