Cryer Creek

Cryer Creek, at the intersection of Farm roads 2930 and 1126, four miles north of Barry in northwest Navarro County, took its name from that of a nearby creek. Settlers thought a fall in the stream sounded like a woman crying. The site was first settled in 1845 by William Melton, who before 1855 was joined by a number of other settlers. Dock Garlington and Wilt Stokes opened a general store there in 1878; this store still existed in 1962, when it was run by Minnie Garlington Walker. In 1879 Bud Conger opened the Cryer Creek post office, which was moved to Barry in 1907. By 1884 Cryer Creek had a district school, two stores, three churches, three steam cotton gin-gristmills, and a population of 100. The population rose to 150 in 1890 and peaked at 200 in 1892, but the town began to decline after the Texas and St. Louis Railway bypassed it. The Cryer Creek school had eighty-five students in 1906. In the 1930s the community consisted of a church, a school, a cemetery, and a number of scattered dwellings, and from 1936 to the end of the 1960s it reported seventy-five residents. From 1970 to 2000 the population was reported as fifteen.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.