Trumbull

Trumbull is near Interstate Highway 45 and U.S. Highway 75 ten miles north of Ennis in northeastern Ellis County. The area that became Trumbull was settled in 1872, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway established a railroad switch at the site. The community went by a number of different names during the nineteenth century. It was originally known simply as Switch and later came to be called Ghost Hill, apparently in reference to the death there of three ranchhands who were hit by a train. For a time the area was known as Mackie and then Clemma. The first real settlement of any size in the area was established under this last name by Henry Harkey in 1886. Clemma received a post office in 1894. The presence of the railroad provided an outlet for the cotton, corn, and alfalfa grown on nearby farms and so encouraged settlement. On April 20, 1904, the community's name was changed to Trumbull, in honor of J. A. Trumbull, a railroad official. Its post office operated through that year but was then discontinued. By 1925 the community's population had reached 150; it reportedly remained at that level for the next twenty years. In 1933 Trumbull had seven businesses, and in 1945 the number had decreased to three. From 1952 to the late 1980s the population remained sixty. The number of businesses declined from four in 1964 to none in 1986. In 1990 the population was sixty-five. The population remained the same in 2000.