Scurry

Scurry is on State Highway 34 four miles southwest of Kaufman in southwestern Kaufman County. The first settlers arrived in the area in the mid-1840s. Over the next twenty-five years a church and school community developed as the number of farms increased. A grist and cotton mill acted as a catalyst for this development. The arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railway in the 1870s established the settlement as a shipping point for area farmers. As the population grew, residents requested that a post office branch be opened. The community submitted the name Scurry, in honor of Scurry Dean, who was killed during the Civil War. In 1883 postal service began. Scurry had a population estimated at fifty in 1884 and 400 in 1914. Residents were served by three churches, a school, and a dozen businesses, including a bank, a weekly newspaper, and a movie theater. Like many other towns in Kaufman County, Scurry declined during the Great Depression and in the first decade after World War II. By the mid-1950s the number of residents had dropped to 250. By the late 1960s the decline had been reversed, and in 1988 and 1990 Scurry reported 315 residents and nine businesses. The population remained the same in 2000.