SHANKS, TEXAS. Shanks was off Farm Road 80 eight miles west of Fairfield in western Freestone County. It was named for Matthew and Robert Shanks of Alabama, who settled in the area with their families in 1859. A small farming settlement grew up, and in 1870 a school was built on a one-acre site donated by R. C. Murray. A post office was established in 1899 and operated until 1906, when it was replaced by rural delivery. In 1917 the school building was torn down, and by the early 1990s a cemetery and a few scattered houses were all that remained of the settlement. A historical marker was placed at the graveyard in 1977.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Marker Files, Texas Historical Commission, Austin.

Christopher Long