ERWIN, TEXAS. Erwin is on Farm Road 149 near the headwaters of Turkey Creek four miles west of Anderson in west central Grimes County. The area was first settled in the early 1830s, although it was not until the late 1800s that a community was established by local cotton farmers and cattle raisers. The area was originally known as Fuqua's Prairie, after the Ephraim Fuqua family, which settled there in 1832. A Methodist church known as Steele's Chapel was built a mile west of what was to become the townsite, and a Baptist congregation, the Fuqua Prairie Baptist Church, was organized in the area in 1877. A black congregation known as the Green Valley Church was established south of the settlement. During the 1890s Will H. and Simon Fuqua each operated a cotton gin in Erwin, and Will Fuqua ran a general store. The community had a post office from 1896 to 1923. In 1900 Erwin reported a population of ten. In 1936 its population remained ten, and the community had one business. The last available population estimate is from the late 1940s, when Erwin reported twenty-five residents and one business. In 1990 the community had a cemetery and a few scattered dwellings.

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

Charles Christopher Jackson