BELL BRANCH, TEXAS (Ellis County). Bell Branch was just west of Farm Road 876 on Bell Branch, ten miles southwest of Waxahachie in southwestern Ellis County. Bell Branch Lake was built as a water reservoir for the International-Great Northern Railroad when it came through the community in 1903, but by the 1950s the area surrounding the lake was used as a private country club. In the 1930s and 1940s the community was in a cattle-raising area and had a population of twenty and one business. In 1980 Bell Branch was still listed as a community. In 2000 the population was twenty.

Lisa C. Maxwell