the first families to locate in the scatterville community were the mcniels, allens, copelands, mobleys, snowdens, waddells, nortens, mitchells, golbys, whites, bradshaws, deans, rayburns, whitakers, and simmons. they were mainly subsistence farmers; however, the allen, knight, simmon, bradshaw, mcniel, and mobley families brought a few slaves with them when they emigrated from kentucky and tennessee. cotton was grown during the antebellum period, but it was only used to make clothing for personal use. a gin in scatterville eased this task somewhat by removing the seeds from the boll. after the war, cotton was raised as a cash crop. in 1855, the first horse-powered sawmill was brought to scatterville, and a frame school building was erected in 1859. in that same year the town welcomed major rayburn's new steam-powered sawmill. other industries in scatterville included a tanyard for shoe making and a hand-powered sorghum mill. the community remained stable until the arrival of the st. louis and texas railroad about two miles (3 km) to the south in 1881. the railroad company laid out a new town named rector, and the population of scatterville gradually migrated to the new and booming town.