RUSSELL, TEXAS (Leon County). Russell is located on Farm Road 1511 twelve miles east of Centerville in east central Leon County. It was established when Thompson Daniel Russell became the first postmaster on February 16, 1885. In 1896 Russell had a flour mill and cotton gin, two general stores, a physician, a blacksmith, and a schoolteacher, who taught grades one through seven at the one-room Round Rock school. In the 1930s Russell had a school, a business, and a few scattered dwellings. The school closed in 1935. On January 4, 1946, a tornado stormed through town, causing massive destruction to property and killing one person. Since the 1940s the population of Russell has been estimated at around twenty-five. In 1990 and again in 2000 the population was twenty-seven.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Leon County Historical Book Survey Committee, History of Leon County (Dallas: Curtis Media, 1986).
