GRATIS, TEXAS. Gratis is on State Highway 62 about six miles northwest of Orange in east central Orange County. Although some development at the site, which lay on the Orange and Northwestern Railway, was noted by 1905, more serious efforts to encourage settlement came in 1909, when C. C., C. A., and F. W. Linebarger organized the Gratis Townsite Land and Development Company of Dallas. The company sold a number of town lots in Gratis and small farm tracts in the Gratis Farms subdivision, but the project failed to attract large numbers of residents. The community's post office, opened in 1910, was discontinued in 1912. Scattered buildings and residences marked the site in 1974.
