WARD CREEK, TEXAS. Ward Creek (also known as Wards Creek) is located on Farm Road 561 about fourteen miles southwest of New Boston and thirty-four miles west-southwest of Texarkana in southwestern Bowie County. The community was named for nearby Ward Creek, and early settler William Ward received a patent for a headright of 1,280 acres in the area on February 10, 1846. The town probably had developed by the second half of the nineteenth century and consisted of a church, school, and farms. The oldest marked grave in Wards Creek Cemetery dates back to 1879. In the 1930s Ward Creek had two churches, a school, several businesses, a sawmill, and numerous dwellings. It remained a rural area throughout the twentieth century and recorded a population of 164 in 1990 and 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fred Tarpley, Place Names of Northeast Texas (Commerce: East Texas State University, 1969).

Laurie E. Jasinski