Holly Springs

Holly Springs was on Farm Road 1653 and Diffy Creek ten miles southeast of Canton in southeastern Van Zandt County. It was settled in the 1850s and according to some sources was part of a wider community that embraced the nearby Cox Cemetery, named for Robert Daniel Cox, who donated land for it in 1880. Some graves in the cemetery are believed to be those of slaves. An early church served as a school until 1856. Robert K. Gibbs donated land for the Holly Springs Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1860, and W. E. and Cornelia J. Roberts deeded land for a local cemetery in 1863. The 1936 county highway map showed a church, a cemetery, two businesses, and scattered dwellings in the settlement. The community's local school was consolidated with the Martins Mill Independent School District by the 1950s. The population of Holly Springs subsequently dwindled, and by 1987 only the church, the cemetery, and scattered residences marked the townsite.