Denson Springs

Denson Springs is by Dream Lake on State Highway 294 eighteen miles southeast of Palestine in southeastern Anderson County. The site was settled before the Civil War and named for a Mrs. Denson, a member of the Bradshaw family that owned a land grant near the community site; the Bradshaws were among the early settlers in the area. An early school was located near the community on the land of a settler named Grayson and was called Grayson School. Before the Civil War the school was one of the largest in the county, and its building was also used as a Baptist church. In 1887 the school was moved to the site of present Denson Springs. Denson Springs post office operated from 1893 to 1918. In 1896 the community had a general store run by Wortham and Company, and in 1901 it had three businesses, a doctor's office, a gin and mill, a church, and the school. By 1914 the population was estimated at 100, and the community had two general stores and a cotton gin. In 1934 the Denson Springs school had forty-six pupils and two teachers, and in 1936 the school and several dwellings were still at the site. The school was consolidated with the Slocum schools by 1955, and by 1982 Denson Springs consisted only of a cemetery and several scattered dwellings. In 2000 the population was 100.