MAYPEARL, TEXAS. Maypearl is on Farm Road 66 ten miles southwest of Waxahachie in western Ellis County. The settlement, originally called Eyrie, had a post office from 1894 to 1903. The name was changed to Maypearl on June 25, 1903, in honor of the daughters of two officials of the International-Great Northern Railroad, which had recently reached the settlement. Maypearl incorporated in 1910 and had a population of 417 by 1920. That year the community's elementary and high schools served 300 students from the town and its environs, and the town had two banks, a weekly newspaper, four churches, and twenty-five businesses by 1914. The population remained at 350 to 400 from 1925 through the mid-1960s. The business community declined from twenty-eight to twelve establishments during the same period. Afterward, the population again began to increase, from 462 in 1977 to 626 in 1986, when some fifteen businesses operated in the community. In November 1988 federal officials selected Ellis County as the intended location for the Superconducting Super Collider.^qv In 1990 the population was 781.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Dallas Morning News, November 27, 1988. Edna Davis Hawkins, et al., History of Ellis County, Texas (Waco: Texian, 1972). Preston Lerner, "Our Backyard Super Collider," Spirit, March 1989.

Brian Hart