Easter

Easter is on Farm Road 2397 two miles east of Farm Road 1055 in northwestern Castro County. It was named for William Frank Easter, who settled there in the early 1900s. In 1901 he donated the land on which a one-room schoolhouse was built. This school was disbanded in 1912 but then reopened in 1915. Church services and Sunday school classes were held there. A new two-room school was built across the road north of the first structure in 1919 and 1920 and was subsequently enlarged. After the building burned in 1940, the Easter school district was consolidated with the Dimmitt schools, twenty miles southeast. A combination church and community center was built on the site but was later moved away and remodeled into a private residence. During the 1950s a grain elevator, a fertilizer shop, and a cotton gin were built at the townsite. Community spirit was revived with the organization of the Easter Lion's Club in 1965; in 1967 the club built a new community building two miles west on Farm Road 1055. Since then the annual Easter "Oprey," along with other special events, has been held there. A grocery store near the gin also operated a hamburger stand. Mail was delivered to the community from Hereford. In 1984 and 1990 Easter reported a population of ninety-one. The population dropped to thirty in 2000.