Como, TX - Population 702 - Population Signs on Waymarking.com

Como is an incorporated community on East Caney Creek at the junction of State Highway 11 and Farm Road 69, on the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway eight miles southeast of Sulphur Springs in southeastern Hopkins County. The area was first settled around 1846 when Ferdinand Carroll established a teamsters camp on the Jefferson Road on East Caney Creek. In 1858 Red Collins and Lonnie Ticer opened a store in the vicinity, and a second store opened in 1866. A post office, named Bacchus, was established for the community in 1870, but the office was renamed Carroll's Prairie in 1876. In the late 1870s the East Line and Red River Railroad was built through the town, and in 1879 the name of the community was changed to Carrollton. In 1894, to avoid confusion with the town of Carrollton near Dallas, the name was changed to Como, at the suggestion of local settlers who were from Como, Mississippi. By 1885 the town had a population of 200 and six general stores, two steam gristmills and cotton gins, a wagonmaker, a blacksmith, and a saloon. Lignite coal was discovered on the property of J. F. Smith, and by 1900 it had become one of the town's leading industries. A settlement of miners of Mexican descent developed east of Como near the mines. In 1910, after much of the town, which had been located south of the railroad tracks, burned down, the townspeople laid out a new town north of the tracks. It was built around a square with a bandstand in the middle. In 1914 Como had a population of 900, Baptist, Methodist, and Christian churches, two banks, an electric light plant, and a weekly newspaper, the Como Headlight. The community was incorporated in 1932. In the early 1930s most of the local mines closed down. Many Como residents moved away, and by 1933 the town's population was only 392. In 1948 Como had five churches, a ten-teacher school, sixteen businesses, and an estimated population of 450. After that the town grew slowly, and in 1989 it reported a population of 625 and thirteen businesses. In the early 1990s it had 585 residents and twenty-nine businesses. The population grew to 621 in 2000.