Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Ferris, TX

Ferris was named for Judge Justus Wesley Ferris of Waxahachie, who handled the September 28, 1874 deed of about 100 acres for a townsite and Houston and Texas Central Railway station.

Within ten years of its 1874 founding, Ferris had about 300 residents, a post office, gristmills, cotton gins, four churches, and a school.

Ferris became famous as the 'Brick Capital of the Nation' and 'The City that Bricked the World' after brick makers began exploiting the mineral-rich clays in the local soil before World War I.

By 1914 Ferris had some fifty businesses, including six brick plants, and four brick plants were still operating in the 1950s at the height of its brick-making fame.

The town celebrates that heritage every year with the Ferris Annual Brick Festival, held at the end of April.

Ferris sits on Interstate 45 about 20 miles south of downtown Dallas, with most of the city in Ellis County and a small portion reaching into Dallas County.

Ferris counted 2,788 residents in the 2020 census, and Census Bureau estimates show rapid recent growth to about 4,291 people by 2025 as the Dallas suburbs push south.

The city covers about 4.8 square miles of blackland prairie in northeastern Ellis County.

In 1994 the Ferris High School boys' basketball team won the Texas Class 3-A state championship.