Sullivan Settlement

Sullivan Settlement was on Big Elm Creek twelve miles north of Denton near the northern Denton county line. It extended down Elm Creek to the mouth of Clear Creek and was west of Isle du Bois Creek. Daniel and John Strickland settled there in 1847, and Charles and Elizabeth (Hammons) Sullivan and their family arrived from Cooper County, Missouri, in 1856 and built a log house. Because the Sullivans were more numerous, the settlement was named after them. The settlers engaged in farming and fruit raising. The soil was fertile, grass was plentiful, and water was nearby, but there were frequent Indian raids. Children of the settlement went to school in a one-room log building in the J. G. Campbell pasture until July 28, 1894, when James H. and Mary (Strickland) Sullivan gave land for a school called Fairview. The school later was consolidated with the Pilot Point school district. The old school building and land were donated by its trustees to the Tyson Cemetery Association. The community was not shown on highway maps from the 1930s. By the late 1980s, most of the Sullivan Settlement land was covered by the waters of Lake Ray Roberts.