North Zulch

North Zulch is at the intersection of State Highway 21 and U.S. Highway 190, six miles from the Navasota River and thirteen miles west of Madisonville in west central Madison County. It was established in 1907 when citizens of Zulch moved north to relocate along the newly constructed Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway, which had bypassed the old town. Telegraph service was established with the coming of the railroad. The Mexia Cut-off, a branch of the Houston and Texas Central Railway, was surveyed through the region, and two lakes known as the South Zulch and North Zulch reservoirs were prepared as watering places for the trains' steam engines. In 1908 a post office was established and a public school was organized in North Zulch. Classes were held in the Freewill Baptist Church until the following spring, when a two-story frame building was erected. In 1920 M. J. Webb became the editor and publisher of the first newspaper published in North Zulch, when the Christian Commonwealth was moved from Madisonville. Before 1932, when State Highway 21 was built, dirt roads served the area. Farm Road 39 was built on the roadbed of the old Houston and Texas Central. In 1931 the population of North Zulch peaked at 1,000, and the town was one of the three major communities in Madison County. By the later 1930s its population had stabilized at 400. In the mid-1960s the population dropped to 100; it was the same in 1990. The number of businesses declined from forty in 1931 to two in 1990. The town of Zulch was named in honor of Julius Zulch (see ZULCH, TEXAS). After his death, North Zulch was built on land from the Zulch estate. In 1906 Julius's son, Will Zulch, donated land for the construction of the Mexia Cut-off, and the town of North Zulch was established "astride the tracks." Julius Zulch and many of his family members are buried at the Willowhole Cemetery, two miles south of North Zulch.