LONE ELM, TEXAS (Ellis County). Lone Elm is on Farm Road 875 five miles west of Waxahachie in Ellis County. It was settled in 1855 by the Jones, Delk, and Johnson families. The name of the community reportedly comes from a local elm tree from which horse thieves were hung. The local economic mainstays were farming, cattle raising, and dairying. At one time Lone Elm had a store, a church, and a gin. During the 1920s the gin was operated by C. L. Ralston. The town reported two businesses and a population of ten in 1931. By 1942 the population had increased to forty. The 1948 county highway map indicated a school, a church, a business, and scattered rural dwellings in the area. In 1955 the store closed. The population of Lone Elm was estimated at forty through 1961. In 1971 twenty residents and one business were reported there; the same statistics were recorded through 1991. The Lone Elm school at one time had eleven grades. When the gin was moved, the students attended Waxahachie schools. The Jones-Delk home, one of the original homes in the area, was still standing in Lone Elm in 1990.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Edna Davis Hawkins, et al., History of Ellis County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1972).

Jeffrey Pilchiek