FRIDAY, TEXAS. Friday is on Farm Road 1280 nine miles northwest of Groveton in northwestern Trinity County. It was established around the time of the Civil War and was originally known as Ellis Prairie, after Benjamin B. Ellis, who received the area as a land grant in 1839. A school, also known as Ellis Prairie, was in operation by 1884. In 1903, when a post office was established, the name was changed to Friday. By 1914 the community had a general store, a cotton gin, and a gristmill. Many residents moved away during the 1930s, but in 1947 Friday still had a store, a post office, and an estimated population of fifty. The post office continued to operate until 1955, when the mail was sent to Groveton. In the early 1990s Friday was a dispersed community with a store, a community center, a cemetery, and a number of houses. The population in 1990 was forty-one. In 2000 it had grown to ninety-nine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Flora G. Bowles, A History of Trinity County, Texas, 1827 to 1928 (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1928; rpt., Groveton, Texas: Groveton Independent School District, 1966). Patricia B. and Joseph W. Hensley, eds., Trinity County Beginnings (Groveton, Texas: Trinity County Book Committee, 1986).
