Erath

This locale is one of the early settlements of McLennan County. Erath was one of the first voting precincts in the county in 1850, with settlers attracted by fertile agricultural lands between the Brazos and Bosque rivers. The community was named for George B. Erath, a soldier and legislator who surveyed Waco in 1849. At its peak the rural community had two churches, a school, two cotton gins, a gristmill, stores and a blacksmith shop. Erath post office operated from 1896 to 1907, and the Erath School was active until consolidating with China Spring in the 1920s. The area was sparsely populated through most of the 20th century; by the time the City of Waco annexed the area in the 1980s, only the Baptist church remained from historic Erath. (2008)