ELYSIAN FIELDS, TEXAS. Elysian Fields is at the junction of Farm roads 31 and 451, a mile north of the Panola county line in Harrison County. The name of the town originated in a dinner conversation in New Orleans in 1817, in which Capt. Edward Smith, having lately ridden through what was then a Caddo Indian village known as Biff Springs, so vividly described the beauty of the area that one of his guests likened it to the Elysian Fields of Greek mythology. By the 1830s the Indians had moved west beyond advancing white settlement. Smith returned to Elysian Fields with his family in 1837 and established one of the first general stores in the area. By 1848 the town had a post office. The Golden Rule Presbyterian Church was organized on January 15, 1851, and was followed by the Bethel Methodist Church five miles from town, for more than fifty years the site of an annual camp meeting. Elysian Fields attained a population of sixty in 1884, and grew to 160 by 1896; that year the town had three churches and daily mail service at postmaster J. M. Furrh's general store. Cotton and lumber formed the economic base of the community. In 1910 the town was moved a mile west to take advantage of a newly laid stretch of the Marshall and East Texas Railway. Elysian Fields prospered for a time, growing to a population of 500 by 1929. The community reported fifteen businesses in 1931. Oil and gas became important to the town's economy in the 1950s, but later on residents came to rely mainly on cattle-raising and farming. In 1990 Elysian Fields had 300 residents, a bank, and at least three other businesses. The population remained unchanged in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: "History of Harrison County, Texas," American Sketch Book 5 (1879). Marshall National Bank, Historical Highlights of Harrison County (Marshall, Texas, 1959). Fred I. Massengill, Texas Towns: Origin of Name and Location of Each of the 2,148 Post Offices in Texas (Terrell, Texas, 1936). W. C. Tenney, History of Golden Rule Presbyterian Church (Elysian Fields, Texas: Golden Rule Presbyterian Church, 1951?).

Pam Nordstrom