SCRANTON, TEXAS. Scranton is on Farm Road 1864 thirty-eight miles southeast of Abilene in western Eastland County. In 1875 the families of D. C. and H. B. Lane and Joe and Aaron Brown settled there, and by the 1880s residents had built a school and a gin. A Mr. Reydon became postmaster when a post office was granted in 1891. In 1903 the Scranton Academy, a preparatory school, opened, and a year later Scranton had 150 residents, an incorporated school district, and dry goods, hardware, and grocery stores. The Scranton Reporter went into publication in 1911. Because the Scranton school had a high school classification in 1943, teachers had to possess credentials, and the schools received state aid. In 1980 through 2000 Scranton had a population of forty, no businesses, and no post office.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Edwin T. Cox, History of Eastland County, Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1950). Ruby Pearl Ghormley, Eastland County, Texas: A Historical and Biographical Survey (Austin: Rupegy, 1969). Carolyne Lavinia Langston, History of Eastland County (Dallas: Aldridge 1904).

Noel Wiggins