The History of Elkhart, Texas

Long before the town itself took shape, this corner of Anderson County drew a determined band of frontier Baptists. Elder Daniel Parker had organized the Pilgrim Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church in Illinois in 1833 with the express purpose of carrying it to Texas — then still under Mexican rule, where Protestant churches were forbidden. Parker and his followers migrated to Texas in 1834, settling first in the area that later became Grimes County before moving north toward Fort Houston in present-day Anderson County. Parker spent years traveling and preaching in the homes of his scattered congregation.

That congregation endured. Known today as the Pilgrim church near Elkhart, it is recognized by the Handbook of Texas as the oldest Primitive Baptist church in the state, and a Methodist congregation took root nearby as well, its early locale marked by a historical marker. This religious heritage is the deepest root of the Elkhart community.

The town proper grew up in 1851, when members of Daniel Parker's Pilgrim community moved to land around Boxy Creek to take advantage of a new post office and a coming railroad. According to local tradition, a friendly Native American helped the newcomers establish themselves, and the community took its name in connection with him.

The railroad turned Elkhart into a trade center. The International–Great Northern ran both passenger and freight trains through town, and the depot became a thriving hub for trains and trucks alike. Freight cars rolled out loaded with tomatoes, cotton, and pulpwood from the area's sawmills — the produce and timber of the surrounding farm-and-forest country shipped to wider markets.

Like many small railroad towns, Elkhart weathered hard times. A fire in 1912 destroyed the downtown area, and during the Great Depression the railroad and bus services gradually fell away as farming declined, though the town kept both a bus stop and a railroad station through those years. The town's schools served hundreds of children even in those lean years.

Elkhart held on. Through the twentieth century it remained a small, steady community, its population climbing from about 1,076 in 1990 to 1,371 by 2010. Today it is a quiet town south of Palestine, anchored by its Elkhart ISD 'Elks' and proud of a history that includes the oldest Primitive Baptist church in Texas just outside of town.