College Mound

College Mound is on Farm Road 429 five miles southeast of Terrell in eastern Kaufman County. A small group of settlers from Indiana and Tennessee moved into the area in the mid-1840s to establish one of the first communities in the county. The community is said to have been named in remembrance of an early plan to establish a college on the site, a plan never carried out. Soon the community had several stores, a cotton gin, a public school, and a church. The Methodist church was founded in 1845, and a cemetery was begun in 1846. W. T. Patton donated land in 1866 for a permanent site for the church. At one time five denominations shared the building—Methodist, Presbyterian, Christian, Missionary Baptist, and Primitive Baptist. The present building was built in 1897. According to some accounts, two saloonkeepers from nearby Elmo once attempted to disrupt church services in College Mound by heckling the minister. An unknown man, reportedly resembling Abraham Lincoln, took one of them outside and thrashed him, after which the two interlopers left and never again caused any trouble. The College Mound post office was opened in 1850, discontinued before the Civil War, reestablished after the war, and discontinued in 1874. John L. Beck, one of the original settlers, was the first postmaster. The school was consolidated with that of Terrell in 1949. In the late 1980s the Methodist church remained a vibrant force in the community, and many of its members were descended from the earliest settlers. At that time College Mound was a quiet community with a cluster of rural homes, a church, and a cemetery. In 2000 the population was 350.