Cow Prairie

Hayden, a farming community just south of Interstate Highway 20 and seven miles northwest of Canton in west central Van Zandt County, had a post office from 1889 to 1903 and was named on the 1906 postal map. The settlement was named for Charlie and Hannah Hayden, who owned a farm at Hayden Springs. In 1890 the community had a gin and gristmill, but its population was estimated at only ten in 1896. The first church used by the community was built in 1878 and located three miles southwest of Myrtle Springs. It was replaced in 1889 by the new Myrtle Springs Baptist Church. The meeting place then moved to the Cow Prairie schoolhouse and was renamed the Hayden Baptist Church in 1904. The Cow Prairie school became known as the Hayden school in 1911. The school building had burned by 1935, and the school was disbanded in 1949. Though in the mid-1930s Hayden had some seasonal industries, a church, a business, and scattered dwellings, by 1981 only the Hayden church and scattered dwellings stood along the roadway.