HAPPY UNION, TEXAS. Happy Union is at the intersection of Farm roads 400 and 784, twelve miles south of Plainview in eastern Hale County. The site was settled around 1897 by the families of J. V. Neal, L. B. Darden, and S. M. Price, and was known in its early years, according to some sources, as Ivy. A one-room schoolhouse was built in the community about that time. In 1901 residents met in the schoolhouse to organize the Happy Union Baptist Church, so named because of the harmonious bonds uniting the church and community members, and the name of the community was changed to coincide with that of the church. The community built a succession of church-school buildings until 1948, when a separate church building was erected. At various times Happy Union has had a service station, a five-room motel, a gin, and a grocery store. A home demonstration club was formed in the community in 1924. In 1930 the Happy Union school had 100 students and three teachers. In 1940 the community comprised the school, a business, the church, and scattered dwellings. The school was consolidated with Plainview and other districts in 1948. For some time thereafter the school building was used as a community center, but it burned down in 1956 and a new community center was built a mile north of the community. Though many farmers left in the 1960s due to water shortages, the introduction of better dry-land farming techniques revived the Happy Union area in the 1970s. In the 1980s local farmers used the community's grain elevator and gin, and the church was still standing in 1992. The population of Happy Union was estimated at fifteen from 1966 through 1990.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Charlie Russell, "The History of a Rural Church: Happy Union Baptist Church," Hale County History 8 (May 1978). Gertrude Ormsby Williams, "The Genesis of Happy Union," Hale County History 13 (May 1983).

Mark Odintz