Eureka

Eureka is at the junction of U.S. Highway 287 and Farm roads 637 and 3243, eleven miles southeast of Corsicana in southeastern Navarro County. The settlement developed around a log schoolhouse known as Dunn's School just before the Civil War. In 1870 residents applied for a post office, and at a Grange meeting decided on the name Eureka. That same year a post office was opened in the home of P. Anderson, and within a few years a small town grew up there. By 1885 Eureka reported several steam gristmills and cotton gins, two churches, a district school, and an estimated population of twenty-five. In 1914 its population was about 100. Three local schools were in operation by 1906—two for White students, with a total enrollment of eighty-five, and one for Black students, with an enrollment of sixty-one. In the mid-1930s Eureka had a school and six businesses. The Eureka school was consolidated with that of Mildred after World War II. The community's population continued to be estimated at about 100 until the mid-1960s, when it was reported as 125. At that time two churches and several businesses still remained at Eureka. In the early 1990s Eureka was a dispersed rural community with an estimated population of 243. In 2000 the population was 340.