Martins Mill

Martins Mill is in the valley of Cream Level Creek at theintersection of Farm roads 858 and 1861, ten miles southeast of Canton in south central Van Zandt County. It was established before the Civil War a mile southeast of its present site and named for Daniel G. Martin, who settled on Heifer Creek and in 1875 opened a gin and gristmill. Churches serving the community included the Holly Springs Methodist Church, founded in 1852, and the Liberty Community Baptist Church, founded in 1870. Martins Mill had a post office from 1879 until sometime after 1930. The town reported a population of seventy-five in 1890 and forty in 1892. The community's first school, a log house built in 1875, served as a community center and church as late as 1900. Friendship School was built after 1900. A. G. Dean founded a school at Martins Mill in the early 1900s, which he named Lexie Academy, for his daughter Lexie. Lexie Dean Robertson was later named poet laureate of Texas. In 1905 Martins Mill had two schools, one for thirty-five Black students and one for seventy-two White students. The local schools were consolidated to form Martins Mill Independent School District in 1964.

On May 25, 1907, the community was struck by a tornado that left no store remaining. By 1919 a Baptist church had moved to Martins Mill from Sand Springs. That year the town had a school and a number of businesses, including a cotton gin, a corn mill, and several general stores. The population was reported as 200 in 1927. In the early 1930s it dropped to fifty-eight, but by the late 1930s it was again reported as 200. In 1936 the town had a church, a cemetery, a seasonal industry, and several dwellings. Rural electrification reached Martins Mill in 1944. The population dropped to 100 by the late 1960s, rose to 125 in the early 1970s, and was still reported at that level through 2000. The 1984 county highway map showed a church and a few businesses at the townsite.