Eden

Eden is on Harden Branch at the junction of U.S. highways 83 and 87 and Farm Road 2402, twenty-one miles southeast of Paint Rock in south central Concho County. The first settlers in the area were the family of Harvey and Louisa McCarty. The town was founded by Frederick Ede, who moved to Concho County with his family about 1881. In February 1882 Ede designated forty acres of his land as a townsite and donated land for the town square. When the settlement received a post office in 1883 it took the name of Eden, an adaptation of Ede's name. The first school in the community opened in 1884–85. By 1890 Eden had a Baptist church (organized in 1886), a general store, a saloon, a jeweler, and a population of 107. It acquired a bank in 1906 and telephone service about 1907, and by 1908 had a windmill and public well. Its early fraternal organizations included the Praetorians, the Woodmen of the World (organized in 1900), the Masons (1903), the Order of the Eastern Star (1907), and the International Order of Odd Fellows (by 1908).

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.