Mars

Mars Community, just off Farm roads 773 and 2339 fifteen miles southeast of Canton in extreme southeast Van Zandt County, was once a retail trading center that produced cotton, vegetables, fruit, and nursery stock. According to various sources, the community, which was originally part of Henderson County, was settled by a group that included the eponymous brothers John and Henry Marrs. A post office, established in 1898, was discontinued in 1907, when mail was diverted to Murchison. The population dwindled from over 100 in 1915 to ten by 1931, increased to eighty-three by 1933, and was last recorded at fifty in 1945. State highway maps of 1936 showed a church, a seasonal industry, and scattered dwellings in the community, but by 1987 only a church remained to mark the townsite.

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.