Prairieville is an unincorporated

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically desc ...

small

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in Kaufman County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States. There is a grocery store at Prairieville, a church, and several homes. According to the

Handbook of Texas The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is an American nonprofit educational and research organization dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, United States, on March 2, 1897. In November 2008, the ...

, the community had a population of 50 in 2000. It is located within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.

History

A Norwegian colony in Texas led by Johan Reinert Reiersen moved from Henderson County to the Four Mile Prairie in Kaufman and

Van Zandt Van Zandt, van Zandt or Vanzandt, is a surname of Dutch language, Dutch origin. van (Dutch), Van Zandt or its variants may refer to: People *Van Zandt Williams (1916–1966), President of the Optical Society of America and Director of the Americ ...

counties in 1848. It resulted in the establishment of Prairieville after they built homes and farms on the land. In the community's first years an epidemic swept through the area in the 1850s, and the survivors moved to Bosque County. The Prairieville community itself survived, which had a population of 206 by 1900 before it plunged to 50 in 1924. The community had several stores and businesses over the years, which included

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

s, general merchandise stores,

carding In Textile manufacturing, textile production, carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver (textiles), sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passi ...

and furniture factories and

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shops. A post office was established at Prairieville in 1854 and remained in operation until 1954 with only one brief interruption. Prairieville was a quiet neighborhood of rural homes and had only one country store and a historical marker. The population remained at 50 in 1990 and 2000. The community had a church established in 1848 by local settlers. Resident Erick Bache built a hotel and had other jobs such as postmaster and was a station leader on two rail lines. Eighty people of Norwegian heritage lived in Prairieville in 1857, while the rest were from other European countries such as

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France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Geography

Prairieville is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 1836 and 90 near the

Van Zandt County Van Zandt County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas, in the northeastern part of the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 59,541. Its county seat is Canton, Texas, Cant ...

line, north of Mabank and southeast of Kaufman in the southeastern portion of Kaufman County.

Education

Prairieville had its own school in the 1850s and remained in operation until it joined the Mabank Independent School District in 1949. The community continues to be served by the Mabank ISD to this day.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Kaufman County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas