COTTON, TEXAS. Cotton, on the headwaters of Bedias Creek three miles northeast of Bedias in northeastern Grimes County, was named for the principal crop of the region. Settlement in the vicinity of the townsite began in the mid-1830s. In the late 1840s a small frame schoolhouse, which doubled for many years as the meetinghouse of the First Baptist Church of Bedias, was constructed on nearby Simes Creek. In 1890 the community's first cotton gin was established by R. S. Callender, who also operated a general store. Mail was delivered to the community over a rural route from Bedias. In 1900 Cotton reported a population of fifteen. By 1936 it reported one business and a population of twenty-five. The number of residents continued to be reported at that level through the late 1940s, after which no population statistics were available.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grimes County Historical Commission, History of Grimes County, Land of Heritage and Progress (Dallas: Taylor, 1982).

Charles Christopher Jackson