Ferris

Ferris is on Interstate Highway 45, U.S. Highway 75, and Farm roads 660, 664, and 983 fifteen miles northeast of Waxahachie in northeastern Ellis County. It was named for Judge Justus W. Ferris of Waxahachie, a county business and civic leader. The community's establishment was associated with the construction of the Houston and Texas Central Railway in 1874. Railroad employees surveyed and laid out the settlement on land donated by the McKnight family, pioneers who had arrived in the early 1850s. Attracted by the region's fertile soil and the commercial possibilities offered by the railroad, settlers began moving into Ferris at once. A general store and a post office began operation in 1874. Within ten years the town had a population of 300, gristmills, cotton gins, four churches, and schools. In 1892 Ferris was incorporated, and its 350 residents supported some twenty businesses in addition to a number of cotton gins and hotels.

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.