Ginger

Ginger is on Farm Road 779 three miles southeast of Emory in eastern Rains County. It was first settled in the late 1870s and became a station on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line in the early 1880s. The small community, near a large deposit of clay, was reportedly named for the color of the clay. A Ginger brick plant, established in 1880, made bricks for the courthouse in Emory. In 1905 the Fraser-Johnson Brick Company opened a factory at Ginger and began manufacturing and marketing "Ginger bricks." The company later shortened its name to Fraser Brick Company and began producing ceramic tile. It continued to operate until the 1940s, when the clay deposits were exhausted. A post office opened at the community in 1910, when Ginger reported a population of 100, two stores, two churches, and a school. In 1920 the population was estimated as 150. By 1930 the Ginger post office had been replaced by rural delivery from Alba. In 1947 Ginger reported two businesses and an estimated population of fifty. In 1990 it was a dispersed rural community with a population of ninety-six. The population remained the same in 2000.