Cottonwood, TX

Callahan County has a Cottonwood on Farm Road 880, eight miles northwest of Cross Plains, where J. W. Love settled in 1875 or 1876. Cottonwood trees supplied the name, and Dr. H. O. Broadnax opened the first store. A post office arrived in 1882, turning the place into a trading center for farmers who had come from East Texas. In 1890, a weekly newspaper called the Prodigal was printed here, and a fruit-and-vegetable cannery opened in 1903.

That early market town changed as automobiles reshaped local movement and agriculture shifted from fruit and vegetables toward ranching. The population fell from 350 in 1890 to 120 by 1940 and stood at 65 from 1980 through 2000. The place still exists as an unincorporated Callahan County town without a post office, with Farm Road 880 tying its name to the Cross Plains area. Cottonwood reads today as a small rural community whose story is written in a store, a vanished newspaper, and the trees along its road.