Garrett Junction, just north of Ennis, is where the railroad from Waxahachie joined the Houston and Texas Central, and it exists because Waxahachie once refused the railroad a bonus. In 1870, when the Houston and Texas Central was planning its route into Dallas, Waxahachie was asked to offer a bonus and declined. The line was built east of the town instead, and Ennis was founded on it. Waxahachie's citizens then built their own connection. The Waxahachie Tap Railroad Company was chartered on 25 January 1875, the city contributed $13,600 in bonds, and thirteen miles of track from Waxahachie to Garrett, three miles north of Ennis, were completed by September 1879. The junction made Garrett, named for William Garrett, one of the original landowners of the area, an important shipping point for Ellis County farmers and businessmen, and mail and freight were shipped from it to points west.
At one time fifteen passenger trains a day passed through the town, and in 1888 it had 100 residents, fifteen businesses, four churches and a school. On 28 September 1881 the Waxahachie Tap was renamed the Central Texas and Northwestern Railway, and it won the right from the legislature to build into the Panhandle, but no more track was laid. In 1901 it was consolidated with the Houston and Texas Central. By the early 1950s the railroads had stopped regular service to Garrett. The town incorporated on 23 July 1956; a post office branch had operated there from 1894 until 1960.
Getting there
32.3619, -96.6508
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