Cottonwood is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in western

Somervell County, Texas Somervell County is a county on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 9,205. Its county seat is Glen Rose. The county is named for Alexander Somervell, secretary of war for the Republic o ...

. It is located off of Farm to Market Road 51 and is about nine miles southwest of

Glen Rose Glen Rose (April 23, 1905 – September 3, 1994) was an American college football and college basketball coach. He served as the head basketball coach at the University of Arkansas from 1933 to 1942 and again from 1952 to 1966, as well as the hea ...

History

The community was built around the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church of Christ, later renamed the Cottonwood Baptist Church. Following an open meeting in August 1874, residents from the area decided to build a

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

that would serve as a church. The church was organized in 1875 by six settlers from the county- Daniel, Eliza, and Sarah Shipman, Solomon and Sally Sutton, and B.M. McFaddin. In its first year, the church had an attendance of eight, Ten years later, in 1880, that number grew to sixty. A school served the community by the early 1900s and continued through the 1930s. It was integrated into the

Glen Rose Independent School District Glen Rose Independent School District is a public school district based in Glen Rose, Texas, Glen Rose, Texas (United States). Glen Rose ISD covers most of Somervell County, Texas, Somervell County and includes the unincorporated communit ...

in the mid-1940s. The community had a population of twenty-four from 1970 to the mid-2000s. The church is still in operation.

References

Unincorporated communities in Somervell County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas {{SomervellCountyTX-geo-stub