ROSSTON, TEXAS. Rosston is on Farm Road 922 twenty miles from Gainesville in the southwestern part of Cooke County. White settlement of the area was in progress by January 5, 1865, when about 100 Indians from Indian Territory raided the community, killing nine people and stealing many horses. This raid is often referred to as the last Indian raid in Cooke County. In 1870 the four Ross brothers, William, John, Perry, and Orr, moved to the vicinity from Grayson County and built a mercantile store, cotton gin, and mill. A post office was established in the Ross store in 1872, and the spelling of the town's name was altered from Rosstown to Rosston. The Butterfield Overland Mail^qv passed near Rosston on trips between Gainesville and Jacksboro. Rosston was also near the Chisholm Trail.^qv The town reached its peak around 1913 when it had a doctor and seven businesses, including three general stores, a drugstore, a cotton gin, and two blacksmith shops. According to local lore, the outlaw Sam Bass^qv used the vicinity of Rosston as a rendezvous, and the community celebrates Sam Bass Day annually on the third Saturday in July. In 1980 Rosston had a population of 110, a store, a volunteer fire department, a Baptist church, a Methodist church, and several residences. In 1990 the population was still 110. The population dropped to seventy-five in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gainesville Daily Register, Centennial Edition, August 30, 1948. C. N. Jones, Early Days in Cooke County: 1848-1873 (Gainesville, Texas, 1936; rpt., Gainesville: Cooke County Heritage Society, 1977).

Robert Wayne McDaniel