Elmo

Elmo is on U.S. Highway 80 some thirteen miles northeast of Kaufman in northeastern Kaufman County. When the Texas and Pacific Railway laid tracks through the area in the early 1870s, a community quickly developed around the railroad, and residents chose the name Elmo in honor of Elmo Scott, a wire engineer who surveyed and routed the T&P through the county. In 1873 a post office branch opened there. Within a decade Elmo had an estimated population of 900 and was a shipping point for cotton, corn, and wheat. The town had a flour mill, several cotton and grist mills, five churches, and a district school. By 1890 its population had dropped to 300, but the community still supported some fifteen businesses, four churches, one school, and several gins. For the first few decades of the twentieth century the population in Elmo remained at an estimated 400, but during the Great Depression and World War II its population declined. In 1945 the town had 150 residents, and over the next four decades that figure decreased. In 1990 Elmo had ninety residents and two businesses. In 2000 the population remained the same with six businesses.