Leroy

Leroy is at the intersection of Farm roads 308 and 2311, fourteen miles northeast of downtown Waco in northeastern McLennan County. It was established in the late 1890s by the Smith Land Company and the International-Great Northern Railroad and was named for Leroy Smith, who was president of both organizations. A post office opened in March 1900 with Joe S. Lumbley as postmaster. By 1914 the community had two general stores, two groceries, a cotton gin, a lumber company, a private bank, and 200 residents. The population rose to 250 by the mid-1920s and remained at that level through the 1960s. A church, a school, and several businesses and residences marked the community on county highway maps in the 1930s and 1940s. Leroy was the focus of a common-school district for several years but was consolidated with the West Independent School District in 1948. The Missouri Pacific Railroad abandoned the section of track between Waco and Maypearl in the mid-1960s, thereby depriving Leroy of rail service. The number of residents fell to 200 in the early 1970s, but when the community voted to incorporated in 1974, the population was estimated at 230; it rose to 253 by the early 1980s. Leroy experienced a serious setback in 1987, when its private bank closed and many residents lost all of their savings because the deposits were uninsured. The estimated population fell from 322 in 1988 to 292 in 1990. The population grew again in 2000 to 335.