Mayflower

Mayflower is on State Highway 87 seventy miles north of Beaumont in northern Newton County. It was first known as the Survey, or Surveyville, because the first known surveying in Newton County was done there on the league of William Williams, who received his grant from the Mexican government in 1834. Several families lived in the community by the 1850s. Surveyville had a post office during the 1890s, but when local residents discovered that another Texas community was using the same name, they adopted the name Mayflower instead. Early settlers of Mayflower were mostly farmers, who probably raised the corn and cotton prevalent in early Newton County. As the East Texas forests became a major source for the timber industry around 1900, Mayflower residents undoubtedly turned some of their attention to nearby timber resources. The community post office was discontinued in 1953. Estimates in the 1970s put the population of Mayflower at 100, where it remained through 2000.