The following information is taken from an article by Judge A. R. Stout and Edna D. Hawkins:Waxahachie, the County Seat of Ellis County, Tex., received its name from the creek which passes through a portion of the town and means in the Indian tongue “Cow Creek.” In 1851, Silas Howell Killough was named as one of the thirteen founding families of the first settlement of the town. He had brought his wife, Theresa Jane, and nine-year-old daughter Susan Jane to live there after the death of a baby son in Gosport, Ind.
After the first cedar-log courthouse was moved in from Dallas in 1850, A. D. Marchbanks erected a shanty and brought up a stock of goods from Galveston. The stock consisted of a couple of boxes of miscellaneous goods, a barrel of molasses and some sugar. Marchbanks discovered that he did not have enough money to pay the freight on his stock, so George Cunningham came to his rescue with a twenty-five dollar gold piece. The second store was kept by Silas H. Killough. He had been a prominent businessman in Gosport, Ind., in the 1840’s. He died on Jan. 1, 1852, and was the first white man to be buried in the City Cemetery, which is located near Waxahachie Creek at the end of South Hawkins Street. After his father-in-law’s death, Stephen A. Clift operated the store in his own name until 1882.Waxahachie is the town where Trinity University was from 1902 until 1930. It originally was called Larissa College, founded in the community of Larissa about 1860. One of the founders was Nathaniel Killough. Because of the Civil War taking the young men, it was moved to Tehuacana, TX, and combined with two other Presbyterian Colleges that became Trinity University. It is now located at San Antonio, TX.
