Forreston, Texas

Forreston is an unincorporated community in Ellis County, Texas, United States. It lies on U.S. Route 77 eight miles south of Waxahachie. The population was estimated to be 238 in 2008.

History

The roots of Forreston date back to 1843, when the area was known as Howe's Settlement, after an early settler to the region. In the mid to late 1840s, the community was re-named Chambers Creek and received its first post office in 1846. It initially served as the original county seat of Navarro County until 1850, when the organization of Ellis County placed the town within the new county.

From the early 1850s to the late 1880s, Chambers Creek remained a small farming community, providing a school and a church for local residents and farmers. In 1890, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (KATY) Railroad was built through the area, and businesses began to spring up along the tracks. It was around this time that the community was renamed Forreston, after Carr Forrest, a local landowner who served as the town's first postmaster and donated the land on which the new rail depot was built. By the 1940s, Forreston had 3 cotton gins, several businesses, and a population of 350. Throughout the Twentieth century the town remained a shipping point for local farming and commerce.

The population began to decline by the 1980s, and by 2000 had dropped to its current level of approximately 200 residents.

Forreston gained notoriety by being featured in Texas Monthly's March 1999 "The Best of Small-Town Texas" issue & D Magazine's August 2007 "Shop Vintage with Ken Weber" thanks to Bon Ton Vintage, a shop founded in 1984 by retired jazz musicians Barbra and John Kauffman which proclaims itself as having the "largest collection of vintage clothing in Texas".

Education

Forreston is served by the Waxahachie Independent School District.

References

Handbook of Texas Online entry for Forreston