Faulkner

Alsdorf was on a spur off State Highway 34 five miles northeast of Ennis in east central Ellis County. The catalyst for settlement was the arrival of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad in the 1880s. The town was named Faulkner after Alsdorf Faulkner, general passenger agent for the railroad. Faulkner's home was an early social center. The name Alsdorf was adopted in 1895 when the settlement received a post office. By 1900 Alsdorf had a general store and a frame church and school building. In addition, two cotton gins and the tracks of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad combined to make the town a shipping point for local cotton. Alsdorf's population never exceeded 100. In 1920 the post office closed. In 1933 the community had an estimated seventy-five residents and two businesses. By 1949, the last year for which figures are available, the population had declined to fifty.