Cross Roads

Elmont is at the intersection of Farm roads 121 and 3356, some fourteen miles south of Sherman in extreme south central Grayson County. Settlers arrived in the late 1840s and called the site Cross Roads, since it was at the crossroads of north-south and east-west trade routes. Harry Campbell of Elmont, New York, established a general merchandise store there in 1845; this store was in continuous operation until its interior was destroyed by fire in 1964. The first church, the Elmont Baptist Church, was organized by Thomas B. McComb in 1869. More extensive community development, however, did not take place until the late 1870s or early 1880s. In 1884 a post office opened at the community. By the mid-1890s Elmont had fifty residents, two general stores, a church, a school, and a cotton gin. The first public library north of Dallas was in Elmont, and at one time the Cross Roads Institute was considered one of the best schools in Texas. The community's population stabilized at between fifty and sixty residents, and in 1904 the local post office closed. By World War II Elmont had only two businesses and a church that served an estimated fifty residents. In the 1980s Elmont had forty-one residents and the Elmont Baptist Church. In 2000 the population was fifteen.