Necessity

Necessity, on Farm Road 207 in southeastern Stephens County, was named to reflect the determined viewpoint of ranchers who settled during the Civil War and Reconstruction and then faced the 1886 drought before gaining a post office in the late 1890s. By 1910 the population was 115, and W. A. Andrews was running a gristmill-cotton gin. The post office closed in 1915 but reopened during the 1916 oil boom. The Wichita Falls and Southern Railway came through Necessity in 1920, when the number of residents was reportedly 800. By 1930 the post office had closed again, and the population had slipped to twenty-five. The population remained at this level for several decades but fell to ten by 1980. It remained at ten through 2000.