CROSS, TEXAS (Grimes County). Cross, on U.S. Highway 39 and the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad in northwestern Grimes County, was established about 1900, when farm families in the vicinity of Morgan Creek began moving to the proposed route of a new Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway line where it crossed D. D. Sheffield's ranch. Settlement began in the area during the 1830s, but no community appeared until the coming of the railroad in 1900. By 1900 a post office had been established with T. H. Ware, operator of a general merchandise store, as postmaster. In 1907 the Trinity and Brazos Valley was extended through the townsite. The Spring Hill Free Will Baptist Church was soon organized. In its early development the town served as a ranching-supply center and supported a blacksmith shop, a drugstore, a cotton gin, a fraternal hall, and several general stores. By 1920 a school was in operation near the townsite at the intersection of the Case and Democrat roads, the junction that seems to have inspired the community's name. In the early 1920s the post office was discontinued, and rural mail delivery from Iola began. In 1949 the local school was incorporated into the Iola school system. Cross reported a population of ten in 1900 and fifty in 1936, when the community supported two businesses. Thereafter, the number of residents remained virtually unchanged for decades; in 1990 it stood at an estimated forty-nine, and no rated businesses were reported. The population remained the same in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grimes County Historical Commission, History of Grimes County, Land of Heritage and Progress (Dallas: Taylor, 1982). Fred I. Massengill, Texas Towns: Origin of Name and Location of Each of the 2,148 Post Offices in Texas (Terrell, Texas, 1936).

Charles Christopher Jackson