Morrill Orchard Company

Frost was the orchard's old enemy. The Handbook of Texas says freezes often destroyed the fruit crop around Morrill, a community on the St. Louis Southwestern line that served as a shipping point for growers. Rowland Morrill founded it as the base for his company, and the Handbook dates that to 1903. When the Depression closed the company, the town lost its anchor. In 1940 it had one store, a school and about 100 residents, and about 100 were still reported in 1966. By the early 1990s it was a scattered rural community.

What the plaque says

Morrill Orchard Company Morrill Orchard Company Peach farmer Roland Morrill (1852-1923) came to Texas from his native Michigan with W. W. McFarland in 1901 to start a large-scale peach farm. They purchased acreage in this area near a rail line and began the Morrill Orchard Company. A community known as Morrill grew up around the orchard operation and included a school, commissary, post office and worker housing. The panic of 1907, followed by a blight in 1914, killed the peach orchards, but the company continued in operation with other produce until the economic collapse of 1929 signaled its demise. At the turn of the 21st century, the superintendent's house stood as the only visible reminder of this part of the county's agricultural history. (2002)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 4.9 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• In the Present County of Cherokee — 3.2 mi
• Site of Lacy's Fort — 3.5 mi
• Site of the Delaware Indian Village — 3.6 mi
• A. Frank Smith United Methodist Church — 4.1 mi