Floyd

Floyd is on U.S. Highway 380 eight miles west of Greenville in west central Hunt County. The settlement that became Floyd was established in 1882, when the East Line and Red River Railroad extended its tracks westward from Greenville to McKinney in Collin County. Railroad officials originally named the new settlement Oliverea, in honor of one of their owners, whose last name was Oliver. A post office opened in the new community during its first year. Residents were unhappy with the name, however, and requested that postal officials change it to Foster. Since a post office with that name already existed in the state, residents agreed upon Floyd, perhaps after Joseph Floyd, a dispatch bearer in Sam Houston 's army. The Floyd post office opened in 1887. The community's population reached 231 in 1904 and 300 in 1933, when the town had some seven businesses, including two banks, two dry-goods stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, and a gristmill. The arrival in Hunt County of good roads and automobiles during the first half of the twentieth century, however, facilitated travel to Greenville, the county's major town, and contributed to Floyd's decline. Its post office closed sometime after 1930. By 1946 Floyd's population had fallen to 150, with three reported businesses. In 1948 Floyd combined its school with that of nearby Merit to form the Bland school district. Under this arrangement, which remained in effect in 1989, Floyd maintained the elementary school and Merit, the high school. Floyd reported a population of seventy from 1952 until the mid-1970s, and from then until 2000 a population of 220.