Discover Salem: A Historical Overview of a Rural Community in Grimes County


By: Laurie E. Jasinski

Published: August 31, 2005

Salem is a small rural community located off State Highway 90 about four miles northeast of Navasota in west central Grimes County. Settlement probably began by the early 1900s. In 1913 Rev. H. Y. Williams organized the Salem Missionary Baptist Church. During the first decades of the twentieth century the church and a nearby cemetery served the farmers of the area. Salem also had its own common school district. Sometime in the middle of the century the school closed, but the church continued to operate into the latter part of the twentieth century. In 1990 Salem reported a population of fifty, and the community maintained that number in 2000.

Another common school district named Salem as well as a church by that name existed in northern Grimes County in the vicinity of Bedias in the late 1800s and early 1900s. No other information is available for that site.

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Grimes County Historical Commission, History of Grimes County, Land of Heritage and Progress (Dallas: Taylor, 1982).

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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Laurie E. Jasinski, “Salem, TX (Grimes County),” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 19, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/salem-tx-grimes-county.

TID: HNSAR

August 31, 2005