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Floyd United Methodist Church
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, September 2009 |
A
Visit to Floyd, TexasPhotographer's
Note:
What little
there is of this town is taking a hit, as the highway is now bypassing town and
the school is probably being closed as they are building a Branch Elementary school
about 5 miles up the road in Merit. - Mike
Price, September 2009
History
in a Pecan Shell
First called Oliverea, after an official of the East Line and Red
River Railroad (actual name Oliver) in 1882 when the railroad was expanding it’s
service from Greenville
to McKinney.
That same year
a post office was opened but the locals balked at their town being named for a
stranger. Foster was suggested but rejected by postal authorities. Their second
choice was Floyd. The reason was lost but it’s thought that it was done to honor
a dispatch rider of the Texas Revolutionary Army. The name was in effect in 1887.
In 1904 Floyd’s population was 231 and it reached a high-water mark of 300 at
the onset of the Great Depression. Development of modern roads favored the county
seat of Greenville and Floyd
suffered as a result. The post office closed in the 1930s and the population was
in decline. After WWII the
population was just 150 and only three businesses had managed to hold on. In the
early 1950s the population had dipped to a mere 70 residents, but from the mid
1970s it had increased to 220 – the same figure given for the 2000 census. |
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