About Ennis: History
About Ennis: HistoryThe
Handbook of Texas Online: Ennis, Texas
(Click 
to View Article)
In
1871, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) (Click
to View Article in The Handbook of Texas Online) purchased
647 acres of land in Ellis County at a price of $5.00 per acre, establishing the
line's northern terminus. On May 8, 1872 this site was established as the City
of Ennis. The namesake of the town was Cornelius Ennis (Click
to View Article in The Handbook of Texas Online),
an early official of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. Ennis served as
Mayor of Houston (1856-1857), was an incorporator and director of the Great
Northern Railroad, and served as a director of the H&TC Railroad.
The
railroad was the key to the development of Ennis as an agricultural, commercial,
and later, an industrial center. In 1920, a total of 152,601 bales of cotton
were ginned in Ellis County
(Click
to View Article in The Handbook of Texas Online),
the most in any county in America. By 1930, Ennis was known as the place "Where
Railroads and Cotton Fields Meet."
For
over 125 years, Ennis has successfully repositioned its strategic business focus
from railroad, to agriculture, to modern industry. Ennis continues to embrace
the rapidly changing business environment and enthusiastically looks forward to
a very dynamic future. In a continuing effort to maintain this long term
success, our schoolchildren enjoy the advanced technology available in our
state-of-the-art multi-media Learning Center at the 40,000 volume Ennis Public
Library.
(Click
to View the Library Web Site).
A service of The Ennis Chamber of Commerce.
For additional information contact:
ENNIS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
108 Chamber of Commerce Drive
P. O. Box 1177
Ennis, Texas 75119
TELEPHONE: 972.878.2625
FAX: 972.875.1473
E-MAIL TO: manager@ennis-chamber.com