Scatter Branch

Scatter Branch is a small rural community off Farm Road 2874 about eleven miles northeast of Greenville and four miles west of Commerce in northeastern Hunt County. Settlement began in this area between the South Sulphur and Middle Sulphur rivers as early as the 1850s. Pioneers included the Goff, Crunk, Crisp, Langford, and Blair families. Residents engaged in farming and stock raising, and the community was named for a nearby creek that overflowed its banks and scattered water over the landscape after heavy rains. A school and cemetery were soon established. In 1879 citizens built a new school house after the old structure burned, and the building also served as the place for church services. Sometime during the 1880s landowner B. F. Kelly donated a site for a church. In the early 1900s Scatter Branch served as its own school district, and the school had undergone various relocations and renovations through the years. Highway maps of the 1930s showed the school, church, and scattered farms in the area. By the second half of the twentieth century the school had closed, but the area maintained an active church community. Scatter Branch Church, owned jointly by Methodist and Baptist congregations, received a Texas Historical Marker in 1967. By 2000 Scatter Branch still appeared on highway maps, but no population figures were available.