Files Valley   Files Valley is actually a small community which lies on Farm Road 66 and Valley Branch between Itasca in Hill County and Maypearl in Ellis County. There are still a few homes there and a cemetery, but most of the residents live on farms and ranches in the area. Many of the settlers in western Ellis County considered themselves residents of this community and many are buried in the cemetery. There are many artesian wells in the area which supplied soft but slightly sulfurous water. The community was originally called Eureka Valley, but was renamed November 19, 1879, for David Sidney Files, who built the first house at the site in 1846. He and his wife donated 360 acres of land and $3,000 cash for the orphanage. Many members of this family were stockholders in the Itasca Cotton Manufacturing Company and some of them married into families living in the Bos-Bethel area of Ellis County. James McCulloch and\ the Witten family were among many other early Ellis County families who settled in this area. The community had a post office named Files from 1880 until 1907. By 1890, there was a church, district school, general store, steam cotton gin, blacksmiths, carpenters and physicians to serve a population of fifty. The school had sixty-one pupils in 1905. Although the railroads bypassed the community in 1906, the Southwestern Home and School for Orphans was founded in Files, although it is located in Hill rather than Ellis County. A small community, the cemetery and the Children's Home on farther southwest are still there and a church was still in existence as late as 1990. References: Files Valley, Tx - Itasca Cotton Manufacturing Company - Southwestern Presbyterian Home and Service Agency; The Handbook of Texas Online; Personal research and interviews with descendants of the Witten and McCulloch families.   Copyright © 2002-2016, Ellis County TXGenWeb. All Rights Reserved. This page was last modified: Thursday, 01-Jul-2021 13:17:04 MDT