China Spring

China Spring (China Springs) is on Farm Road 1637 twelve miles northwest of Waco in northwestern McLennan County. Settlement of the area began as early as 1860, and the community was founded in 1867. It was named for a spring in a chinaberry grove. A post office was established at China Spring in May 1873 with Charles S. Eichelberger as postmaster. By the early 1880s the community had five steam cotton gins and gristmills, three general stores, a Methodist church, and 200 residents. Cotton, corn, and wool were the principal shipments from the area. Population estimates for the community fell to 100 in the early 1890s but rose to 250 by 1896.

China Spring became the focus of a rural high school district in the late 1920s; it joined with Bosqueville in 1963 to form the China Spring-Bosqueville Independent School District. Two years later China Spring became a separate independent school district. Two churches, a school, and a good number of houses marked the community on topographic maps in the mid-1970s. The population of China Spring was reported at 214 from the 1930s through the 1960s and at 181 in the 1970s through 1990.