ELMWOOD, TEXAS. Elmwood is at the intersection of a country road and Farm Road 315, eleven miles northeast of Palestine in northeastern Anderson County. The site was settled in the 1850s, and by 1881 the community had been named for the elm trees in the area. In 1901 Elmwood was mentioned in the Anderson County Herald as having a literary and debating society that met every two weeks. The community unsuccessfully applied for a post office that year. In the 1920s the town had two stores and a barbershop. The Elmwood school enrolled fifty-six white pupils and 112 black pupils in 1932. In 1933 the settlement had a population of ten and one business. The surrounding farms primarily produced cotton, poultry, and dairy products. From 1952 through 1987 the number of residents was estimated at twenty, and in 1985 Elmwood had a church. In 2000 the population was twenty-five.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Anderson County Herald, April 19, May 31, 1901. Thomas Paul Jones, The Reorganization of the Public Schools of Anderson County, Texas (M.Ed. thesis, University of Texas, 1934).
