Maysfield, Texas

Maysfield was originally called Old Graball. However, it eventually adopted the name Maysfield in tribute to Thomas Newton Mayes, a resident of the region since 1853. In 1868, the Maysfield post office was founded. A Presbyterian church was established in 1873 with two presiding elders and nine members. The church had 90 members in 1884; meetings were held in members' houses until a church building was built ten years later. Maysfield had 250 people, a steam gristmill, and a cotton gin in 1884 as well. The community was situated between Calvert and Cameron on the stage. As many as four distinct railroad corporations intended to build tracks from Calvert or Hearne through Maysfield to Cameron and eastward into Bell County between the 1860s and the 1890s. However, none of these initiatives were ever completed, and Maysfield was left out of the economic growth that railroads brought to other commercial hubs. As a result, a sizeable portion of the community's occupants left. By the middle of the 1890s, barely 150 people were still living there. From the middle of the 1930s through the middle of the 1960s, when a minor upward trend started, Maysfield reported a population of 124. 130 people lived there in 1968, and 140 did so in 1990. In 2000, the population was unchanged.[3]

The Williams-Atkinson Homestead in the community was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.[4]

Maysfield is located on Farm to Market Road 485, 8 mi (13 km) northeast of Cameron in northeastern Milam County.[3]

Maysfield had a thriving school system in 1884 that served as a common school district until the late 1960s or early 1970s. In 1903, there were two one-teacher schools for 74 White students and 88 Black students each. They joined the Cameron Independent School District in the early 1970s.[3]