Blue Prairie

Monkstown is on Farm Road 273 sixteen miles northeast of Bonham in extreme northeastern Fannin County. The area was first known as Blue Prairie and was apparently settled sometime in the 1870s. A post office named Monkstown had opened by 1878; it was named for James Monks, who donated land for the settlement. By the mid-1880s the community had a population of 100 and twelve businesses, including a steam gristmill and a cotton gin. Monkstown reached its peak during the mid-1890s, when it reported a population of 400, fifteen businesses, a school, a church, and a Masonic lodge. The post office closed in 1927. By the mid-1940s the community had declined to seventy residents and two businesses. By the 1970s most of the land surrounding Monkstown had reverted to pastureland, though some peanuts, soybeans, and grain were still produced. In 1990 and again in 2000 the community population was thirty-five.