Biohazard Cleanup Near North Emory Emory, TX

Emory is the county seat and largest town of Rains County, at the junction of U.S. Highway 69 and State Highway 19 in the center of the county, about 64 miles east of Dallas.

The community was originally called Springville, reportedly for the many springs in the area, and Emory Rains settled just east of the townsite around 1848.

When Rains County was organized in 1870, Springville became the county seat and was renamed Emory in honor of Rains, the legislator who authored Texas's Homestead Law and pushed the county's creation through.

Rains County is one of the smallest counties in Texas at about 259 square miles, and more than 10 percent of its area lies under water since the construction of Lake Tawakoni and Lake Fork Reservoir.

By 1885 Emory had two churches, two sawmills, two cotton gins, two saloons, two hotels, a weekly newspaper called the Rains County Record, and about 600 residents.

The Great Depression shrank Emory to just 447 people by 1936, but the town began growing again after Lake Tawakoni was completed in 1960 and Rains County started drawing retirees and lake visitors.

Emory sits between two of Texas's most popular fishing and recreation lakes, Lake Tawakoni to its west and Lake Fork Reservoir to its east.

According to the 2020 census, Emory had a population of 1,251 people living in 472 households.

The Rains County Courthouse in Emory is recognized as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.

Emory is served by the Rains Independent School District, which covers most of Rains County including Point and East Tawakoni, and Rains High School's Wildcats compete in UIL Class 3A.