The towns and the places
Six towns keep pages here. Around them are the places that did not: some are still on the road, some are a church and a graveyard, and some are only a name. The curved lines show where a place went when it emptied out. Four of the seven walked to the railroad; the others left for a post office, a flood and a school.
The map is wider than the screen. Drag it sideways.
Filled ring a town with a pageDot a placeHatched line railroadBroken line railroad grade, track liftedCurved line where the place went
Base geography is US Census TIGER/Line 2024 and place coordinates are USGS GNIS, both public domain. The lifted lines are traced from USGS historical topographic quadrangles (1:24,000, 1956 and 1965) and from Census TIGER/Line 2007 for the Corsicana–Dawson line, which TIGER carried then and does not carry now.
Goodlow, Pickett, Retreat are too close to a neighbor to fit a name at this scale, so they are marked with a dot only here; each one's own note is below.
The places between them
Smaller than a town and older than most of them. No city hall to ring and no school calendar. What these have is a name, a location, and whatever the record kept.
Near: Blooming Grove (7) · Frost (4) · Dawson (17) · Hubbard (1) · Kerens (14) · Rice (6) · Corsicana (21)
Near Blooming Grove
Called Melton first, then Richland, then Dresden in the 1860s. Navarro County's first post office ran out of Ethan Melton's house here, and he gave the ground for the church, the school and the burying place that still carries the family name. A graveyard reservation from Hannah Melton to C. C. Melton, dated 11 November 1909, is on record in the county deed books.
Navarro County deed records and family research
Gradyville is what Blooming Grove was called before it moved. R. J. Grady and Sam Andrews opened a store here shortly after the Civil War, and a cotton gin followed. When the post office came in 1871 the citizens met at White Church to choose a name for the community. The town later moved a mile north to reach the Cotton Belt line and merged with White Church, and the name stayed behind with the old site.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Blooming Grove; T. Edgar Campbell, A Short History of Early Blooming Grove
Named for Bryan T. Barry of Corsicana, who sold the first settlers their land. The post office opened in 1886 inside a general store a mile south of the present town, and when the Cotton Belt laid its Corsicana to Hillsboro track in 1888 the whole place moved up to the rails.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Settled in 1873 by the Merediths, who came from Mississippi after the war. The post office opened in 1900 and moved to Frost in 1904; the population was recorded as twenty every year from 1933 to 1969.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
On Farm Road 2930, four miles north of Barry, Grange Hall was established before 1900. Its mid-1930s community held a school, a church, a cemetery and a number of houses; the school merged into Barry's after the war, and by the 1960s only the cemetery and scattered houses were left.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Grange Hall, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Three miles west of Emhouse, Kelm was founded in 1854 by T. R. Kelm and grew into a real town, with two churches, a grocery, a cotton gin and a general store serving about four hundred people by 1896; its school opened in the early 1890s and its post office in 1894. In 1907 the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway bypassed it by two miles, building Emhouse instead, and Kelm's businesses and residents went with it. It was a ghost town by 1910. The site has also been recorded as Johnson's Gin, Prairie Home and Tinkle.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Kelm, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Cryer Creek sits at the junction of Farm Roads 2930 and 1126, four miles north of Barry in northwest Navarro County. William Melton settled it in 1845; a store opened in 1878. It peaked near two hundred people in 1892, then declined once the Texas and St. Louis Railway bypassed it for Barry in 1907, its post office moving there the same year. Population has held near fifteen since 1970.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Cryer Creek, Navarro County (Molly McKee).
Near Frost
Named in 1854 for a factory town near Boston. Texas Presbyterian College for Girls opened here in 1902 and closed in June 1929 for want of an endowment; the town had twelve hundred people that year and 685 in 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
The businesses here picked up and moved to the new railroad town at Frost.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Brushie Prairie, spelled Brushy Prairie in the Handbook of Texas, sits on Farm Road 1578, eighteen miles west of Corsicana in northwest Navarro County. It was established before 1900 with two segregated schools, sixty-five white and fifty-four Black students in the early 1900s, and had a gin, a blacksmith, a church and stores by the mid-1930s. Its schools consolidated into Frost's after the Second World War, and the community had dispersed by 2009.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Brushy Prairie, Navarro County (Christopher Long); USGS GNIS feature 1378059, filed as Brushie Prairie.
Emmett sits at the junction of Farm Roads 639 and 744, twenty-one miles west of Corsicana in western Navarro County. The Osburn and Goodson families established it after the Civil War; its post office ran from 1888 to 1905. Population was about two hundred fifty in 1890, near a hundred eighteen by the mid-1930s, and has held near a hundred since 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Emmett, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Near Dawson
The oldest settlement in Navarro County, begun in 1838 as a trading post by a Republic of Texas Indian agent. When the railroad reached Dawson four miles southwest in 1881 the merchants, the residents and the Masonic Lodge all moved to it, and Spring Hill emptied.
Texas Historical Commission marker, Town of Dawson, 1978
Called Belle Point until the Cotton Belt came through in 1882 and a railroad man named the new townsite for Ada Purdom, a cashier in the store. The general office misspelled her name on the paperwork and the misspelling stuck.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Pisgah sat on Pisgah Ridge, seven miles south of Corsicana, first settled in the late 1840s. By 1900 it had a school, several stores, a combined cotton gin and gristmill, and a church; a post office ran for less than a year starting in 1891. The school consolidated into Richland's after the Second World War, and by the mid-1960s only a cemetery and a few scattered houses were left.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Pisgah, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Founded as "Forks of the Creek" by formerly enslaved people after the Civil War; among the early settlers were Wade Westbrook's family, arrived from Alabama, the Sneed family, and Henry Carruthers, once enslaved on the nearby Lawrence plantation. The post office renamed it Pelham in 1900. The town held about 350 people in the 1920s; a few dozen remain, and it is one of a shrinking number of Texas freedom colonies still active rather than emptied out. A group of residents calling themselves the Guardians of Memory opened the Pelham Community History Museum in 2002 and hold a homecoming every October.
Dallas Morning News, "On a quest to preserve history in Pelham, Texas," 18 November 2012; Texas Freedom Colonies Project (Dr. Andrea Roberts) directory and research writing on Pelham.
A rural community on Farm Road 667, two miles north of Navarro Mills, grown up around a meetinghouse built before 1900. Sixty students were enrolled in its school in 1906. The school later merged with Blooming Grove's, and by the mid-1960s only a cemetery and a few scattered houses remained.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Alliance Hall, Navarro County.
Founded around 1895 by formerly enslaved people, who built a church and named it, and the settlement, for the ancient city, a name with clear weight to its founders. A school followed by 1900; residents did their trading in Dawson, Purdon or Spring Hill. Both church and school closed, most people left after the Second World War, and by the early 1990s only a few scattered houses remained.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Babylon, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1994).
Pursley sat on Farm Road 642 between Richland and Pin Oak creeks off Farm Road 709, eight miles from Corsicana in southwest Navarro County, in country the Handbook of Texas describes as fine timber and fertile fields. It was probably named for W. H. Pursley, its postmaster; the post office ran from 1872 to 1907. Population held near forty through the back half of the twentieth century, down from eighty-six in 1945.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Pursley, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1952; revised 1995).
On Board Creek, three miles south of Pursley, Board was probably established in the early 1880s. Its post office opened in 1886 and its school enrolled eighty-eight students in 1906. The post office closed in 1904, and the settlement was off the highway maps by the mid-1930s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Board, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1994).
Eleven miles southwest of Corsicana on the St. Louis and Southwestern, Jester began as a stop called Switch in the 1880s and took its new name in 1899, for George Taylor Jester, the Corsicana man who was lieutenant governor. Its school enrolled forty-seven students by 1906; the post office closed in 1909, reopened in 1923 and closed again after 1930. About ten people were left by the mid-1930s, the store and church closed after the war, the school consolidated into Purdon's, and it was off the highway maps by the 1960s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Jester, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1952; revised 1995).
Off Farm Road 638, twenty-one miles southwest of Corsicana, Hardy's Chapel grew up around a church of the same name, probably after the Civil War. Its school ran through the 1880s and closed by 1900; the mid-1930s community held a store and houses for about twenty-five people. It was off the highway maps by the mid-1960s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Hardy's Chapel, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1952; revised 1995).
On Farm Road 709, two miles west of Dawson, Liberty Hill was established before 1900, its school enrolling twenty students by 1906. The mid-1930s community held a school, a cemetery and a number of houses; the school consolidated into Dawson's after the war, and by the mid-1960s only the cemetery and scattered houses remained.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Liberty Hill, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
On Farm Road 638, seven miles southeast of Dawson, Shiloh was probably established before 1900. Its mid-1930s community held two churches, a school, a cemetery and a number of houses; most residents left after the war, and by the mid-1960s a church and cemetery were still standing. It had become a dispersed rural community by the early 1990s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Shiloh, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Eldorado Center sits on Farm Road 638, twenty miles southwest of Corsicana in southwestern Navarro County. It began as a settlement for workers on the Eldorado Ranch, with its first store opening around 1910. Population was about fifty in 1936 and has held near twenty since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Eldorado Center, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Rodney sits on Pin Oak Creek off Farm Road 638, eight miles from Dawson. Joshua Graham founded it in 1834 on a Texas Revolution bounty grant, one of the oldest founding dates on this list; its post office ran from 1884 to 1904. Population was about thirty-five in 1945 and has held near fifteen since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Rodney, Navarro County (Carol M. Rushing).
Silver City sits at the junction of State Highway 31 and Farm Road 55, two miles north of Purdon in west central Navarro County. It was established before the Civil War; one account of its name says a German merchant there refused Confederate currency and demanded payment in silver. Population was about twenty-five in 1940 and has held near a hundred since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Silver City, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Union High sits at the junction of Farm Roads 638 and 642, eight miles southeast of Dawson in southwestern Navarro County, probably founded in the nineteenth century. By the mid-1960s only its church and cemetery remained. Population has held near thirty since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Union High, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Near Hubbard
Four miles southwest of Dawson, Stansel was named for an early settler and established before 1900. Its post office ran from 1901 to 1903; the mid-1930s community held a school, a church, a store and a number of houses. The school closed after the war, and by 1947 only a store and a church were left, for about thirty people. It was off the highway maps by the mid-1960s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Stansel, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1952; revised 1995).
Near Kerens
Emptied into Kerens the same way in 1881, when the Cotton Belt main line went through. The first church building here had served as the school and the Masonic lodge hall as well.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, and Texas Historical Commission marker, Kerens Presbyterian Church
Hugh and Washington Ingram settled here in 1850, and Hugh's son James built the first steam gristmill in this part of the county about 1870. By 1885 there were four cotton gins and three gristmills for seventy-five people; after the Second World War the school went to Kerens and the stores closed.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Begun about 1845 on the Trinity bank and moved to higher ground after the floods. The name is a Baptist preacher's, who ran the ferry. Four hundred people lived here in 1896 and twenty or thirty have since the 1960s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas · Texas Historical Commission marker, 1986
Two miles northeast of Kerens, Oak Grove was a farming community established before 1900, its school enrolling sixty-nine students in 1906. The mid-1930s settlement held a church, school, cemetery and several houses; the school merged into Kerens's after the war, and by the mid-1960s only a church, cemetery and scattered houses were left.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Oak Grove, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
On Farm Road 309, five miles south of Kerens, Long Prairie was established before 1900; its school enrolled thirty-seven students by 1906. The mid-1930s community held two churches, a cemetery and a number of houses. Its school consolidated into Round Prairie's and later Kerens's, and by the mid-1960s only a church, a cemetery and a few scattered houses were left.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Long Prairie, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Winkler sits on Farm Road 416 on the Navarro-Freestone county line, about four miles from Walker Lake. It was founded around 1879 and named for Judge Clinton M. Winkler; by 1882 it had seventy-five people, three general stores, a gin and two steam gristmills, and it peaked at about a hundred fifty residents in 1925. It has since settled at a small, steady population, twenty-six people as of the most recent count, one of the few communities on this list still standing rather than emptied out.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Winkler, Navarro/Freestone County (Christopher Long, 1952; revised 1995); USGS GNIS feature 1379285, filed under Freestone County.
Powell sits seven miles east of Corsicana near Lake Corsicana, on the old St. Louis Southwestern Railway line, Farm Road 653 and State Highway 31. It was named for Bud Powell, the landowner whose land became the railway's station site; the line came through in 1881 and its post office opened in 1892. The Powell oil field, discovered here in 1900, is the same boom already noted on this list at Angus and Tuckertown, and Powell is the town it was named for. By 1914 it held two general stores, two grocery stores, two cotton gins, a lumber company, a hardware store, a drugstore, a doctor and its own bank. Population peaked near five hundred in the 1920s and has settled since at around a hundred, ninety-nine to a hundred one people as of the most recent count, still standing rather than emptied out.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Powell, Navarro County.
Goodlow sits on State Highway 309 just south of Kerens, established around 1900 on land belonging to Harry Goodlow. It grew as a Black community; by the mid-1930s it held two churches, two schools and a number of houses, and its schools consolidated into Kerens's after the Second World War. When Kerens declined to annex it, Goodlow incorporated on its own in 1978 and remains incorporated today, a hundred seventy-eight people as of the 2020 census.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Goodlow, Navarro County; USGS GNIS feature 1388186, filed as Goodlow Park.
Elm Flat sits on Farm Road 633, nine miles southeast of Corsicana in southeastern Navarro County. It formed in the late 1870s; by 1906 it had two schools, forty white and fifty-three Black students, and it peaked in the early 1930s. It is now a dispersed rural community.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Elm Flat, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Eureka sits at the junction of US Highway 287 and Farm Roads 637 and 3243, eleven miles southeast of Corsicana. It grew around Dunn's School before the Civil War, and its post office took its name at a Grange meeting in 1870. Population was about twenty-five in 1885 and a hundred by 1914, then grew again in recent decades, two hundred forty-three in the early 1990s and three hundred forty by 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Eureka, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Goodnight sits off Farm Road 3096, eighteen miles east of Corsicana in eastern Navarro County, probably settled before the early 1900s with a school and churches by the 1930s. It sits under half a mile from Samaria, also on this list, and the Handbook of Texas notes that Samaria's own early school was itself named Goodnight; the two are separate places. Population was about twenty-five as of 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entries for Goodnight and Samaria, Navarro County (Laurie E. Jasinski; Christopher Long).
Round House sits on State Highway 309, two miles south of Round Prairie, also on this list, in southeastern Navarro County, probably established around 1900. Its school consolidated into Kerens's after the Second World War, and it was off the highway maps by the mid-1960s. Population has held near forty since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Round House, Navarro County (Christopher Long); USGS GNIS feature 2034797, filed as Round House (historical).
Round Prairie sits at the junction of State Highway 309 and Farm Road 635, eighteen miles south of Corsicana in southeastern Navarro County, settled around 1900 with a store already there before 1895. By 1906 its two schools enrolled a hundred thirteen students between them; both consolidated into Kerens's, the same as neighboring Round House's. Population has held near forty since 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Round Prairie, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Samaria sits on Farm Road 3096, four miles southeast of Kerens in southeastern Navarro County, probably settled before 1900. Its early school, with a hundred thirty-seven Black students enrolled in 1906, was itself named Goodnight, the name of the separate community that sits under half a mile away and is also carried on this list. Population has held near ninety since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entries for Samaria and Goodnight, Navarro County (Christopher Long; Laurie E. Jasinski).
Near Rice
Laid out about 1906 on the Trinity and Brazos Valley line and called Lyford until the Post Office objected that Texas already had one. The replacement name is the initials and surname of Edward M. House, who formed the railroad and was later Woodrow Wilson's closest adviser.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Taken by the river in 1866. Some of the people who left it settled the ground that became Rice.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Champion Chatfield set up a trading post in an oak grove on the San Antonio and Shreveport trail in 1838, six miles east of Porter's Bluff, and the town took his name. It had five hundred people and a daily stage to Rice in the 1890s, and forty in 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Six miles north of Corsicana on the Houston and Texas Central line, Carl was a rail stop founded before 1900, with a depot, a few stores and several houses by the mid-1930s. It emptied after the Second World War and was gone from the highway maps by the 1960s; a few scattered houses were all that remained by 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Carl, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1952; revised 1994).
Montfort sits on Farm Road 636, eleven miles northeast of Corsicana in northeastern Navarro County. It was established in the late 1890s; its post office ran from 1896 to 1904. Population was about fifteen by 1936, and its school consolidated into Roane's, also on this list, after the Second World War.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Montfort, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Tupelo sits on Farm Road 1603, seven miles northeast of Corsicana in northeastern Navarro County, a farming community settled around the Civil War and named for Tupelo, Mississippi. Its post office ran from 1901 to 1906.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Tupelo, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Near Corsicana
A railroad stop with a post office from 1897. Several hundred people came when oil was found on the Powell field about 1900; it was over by 1905 and the post office closed in 1907. Sixty-one people lived here in the mid-1930s and 399 at the 2020 census.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas · U.S. Census Bureau
Named for Francis Marion Cheney, who came in the early 1880s and built his house out of lumber sawed at his own mill on Richland Creek. The house was later moved to the middle of the county and was still standing in the 1980s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
Put together out of two earlier settlements, Center Point and Rabbit Hill. The post office ran from 1901, closed, reopened in 1921 when oil came in, and closed again; pumps were still standing among the houses in 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas
A boomtown of the Powell oil field, laid out in 1923 by Percy T. Fullwood and Harry L. Tucker and home to about 3,000 people within months, living mostly in tents. Two fires hit it, in October 1923 and February 1924. The field finished drilling that November, and by 1931 most of Tuckertown had been torn down. The Powell field produced roughly 186 million barrels of oil before the ground went back to pasture.
Texas Historical Commission Atlas, "Site of Tuckertown," marker erected 2000, Atlas number 5349012341.
Streetman straddles the Navarro-Freestone county line, laid out in 1905 when the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway came through; it took over the nearby community of Cade's post office that same year and was named for Sam Streetman of Houston, the railroad's own surveyor. It incorporated in 1914 at about 600 people, held above 500 again in 1931, and ran its own newspaper from 1912; the school, which started in a blacksmith shop in 1907, consolidated into Fairfield's system in the late 1940s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Streetman, Navarro/Freestone County; texasescapes.com, "Streetman, Texas."
Three miles north of Pursley on the Corsicana mail route, Mann was probably established in the mid-1890s; its post office ran from 1896 to 1904. By 1900 it had a general store, a cotton gin and a handful of houses. It had disappeared from the map by the 1930s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Mann, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Pansy sat on State Highway 31, five miles west of Corsicana, established around 1900 and known for a time as Union Flat and Wilmerding. Its post office ran from 1900 to 1910, and the town supported several stores and a gin. It had dropped off the highway maps by the mid-1930s.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Pansy, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
On State Highway 14, fourteen miles south of Corsicana, Carroll Chapel was founded before 1900 and had a school enrolling twenty-five students by 1906. The mid-1930s community held a church, a cemetery and a number of houses; most residents left after the Second World War, and by the mid-1960s only the cemetery and scattered houses remained.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Carroll Chapel, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1994).
Just off U.S. 287, three miles west of Eureka, Providence was probably established before 1900 and named for an early local church. Its school enrolled forty-three students in 1906, and the mid-1930s community held a school, a store, a church, a cemetery and a number of houses. The store closed after the war and the school consolidated into Mildred's; by the mid-1960s only the church, cemetery and a few scattered houses were left.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Providence, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Angus sits on the Union Pacific Railroad and Interstate 45, six miles south of Corsicana. It was founded in 1871 by A. Angus, who put up the first hay press in that part of Texas; a church followed in 1872, a school in 1874, and a post office from 1877. Population was twenty in 1911 and twenty-five in 1945, then grew through the late twentieth century, two hundred forty-four in 1987 and three hundred sixty-three in 1990, reaching four hundred fifty-seven as of the most recent count.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Angus, Navarro County (David Allen).
Black Hills sits on Farm Road 1839, eight miles northwest of Corsicana in north central Navarro County. It was probably settled before 1900; by 1906 its school had two teachers and eighty-nine students. It peaked before the First World War with a gin, a store and a church, then declined through the 1920s. Population has held at about eighty since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Black Hills, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Corbet sits on Farm Road 2452, six miles southwest of Corsicana between Briar and Cedar creeks, on the old St. Louis Southwestern Railway line. It began in 1866 as Cook's Schoolhouse, was later called Waters, then took the name Corbet; its post office ran from 1893 to 1929. Population peaked near three hundred in 1914 and has held at about eighty since 1970.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Corbet, Navarro County (David Allen).
Drane sits on Farm Road 744, six miles west of Corsicana in west central Navarro County. Its post office opened in 1883; the community peaked around 1896 with about seventy-five people, a flour mill, a cotton gin and Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches. The post office closed in 1906. Population has held at sixteen since 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Drane, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Mustang, an incorporated community on Farm Road 739 just east of Angus in central Navarro County, held several liquor stores and a dance hall in the early 1990s. Population was twelve in 1987 and forty-seven in 2000; the most recent counts, in 2020 and 2021, report no one living there.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Mustang, Navarro County (Christopher Long, 1995).
Oak Valley, off Farm Road 2555 four miles southwest of Corsicana in central Navarro County, is not one of the older communities on this list. It was founded in the 1970s as a residential subdivision for people commuting into Corsicana, and it is still growing rather than fading, about two hundred people in 1987, four hundred eighteen as of the most recent count.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Oak Valley, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Pettys Chapel sits a mile northeast of Corsicana in central Navarro County. It traces to an 1852 Cumberland Presbyterian camp meeting and takes its name from George V. Petty, who donated the school land in 1870; its first Methodist church was built around 1885. Population was about forty in 1939 and has held near twenty-five since 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Pettys Chapel, Navarro County (Todd Gantt).
Pickett sits on Farm Road 709, five miles south of Corsicana in south central Navarro County, probably established before 1900. Its school enrolled forty-six students by 1906. Population was about seventy-five by 1936 and has held near thirty since 2000.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Pickett, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Retreat sits on Farm Road 709 just south of Corsicana in south central Navarro County. It began in the 1840s as Beeman's School House and took its present name when the schoolhouse relocated. Population was about a hundred by the mid-1960s and has grown since with Corsicana's own commuting reach, three hundred thirty-four in 1990 and four hundred thirty-two as of the most recent count.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Retreat, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Richland sits at the junction of Interstate 45 and State Highway 14, on Pisgah Ridge twelve miles south of Corsicana in south central Navarro County. Asa Chambers opened a store there in the late 1840s, and its post office, Richland Crossing, named for Richland Creek, opened in 1848; the Houston and Texas Central Railway reached it in 1871. Population peaked near seven hundred fifty in 1929 and declined through the Depression, settling at two hundred fifty-five as of the most recent count.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Richland, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
Roane sits at the junction of Farm Roads 636 and 1129, eight miles northeast of Corsicana in northeastern Navarro County. The Beasley family settled it in the early 1840s; its post office, named for resident Will Holland, opened in 1892, and a cotton gin followed in 1893. Population was about a hundred fifty in 1914 and has held near a hundred twenty since 1990.
Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, entry for Roane, Navarro County (Christopher Long).
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