unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
in
Jack County
Jack County is a county located in the north central part of the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 8,472. Its county seat is Jacksboro. The county was created in 1856 and organized the next year. It is named for P ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, United States. It lies in the far western corner of the county near the Young County line. As of the 2000 Census, its population has been estimated at 75.
History
Jermyn was founded in 1902; relatively recently by rural Texas standards. It was also among the last new settlements in Jack County. Named for the son of Scranton, Pennsylvania
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
magnate Joseph Jermyn, the community was established as headquarters for local mining. The Gulf, Texas and Western Railroad reached Jermyn in 1909, and by the 1920s the town possessed a school, a church, a bank, several businesses and an estimated population of 213. As the use of coal subsided in favor of oil, Jermyn developed into an agricultural center for local ranchers and continued to thrive into the 1960s. The population high-water mark was reached in 1968, when Jermyn was reportedly home to 1,066 residents. In the 1970s, however, the community began a steep decline and by 1990 the population had fallen to 75, a number it maintained through to the 2000 Census.*