DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about the City of Irving. Now, every good Texas town has an origin story, and Irving's starts the way the best ones do — with a railroad, a piece of land, and two men who knew an opportunity when they saw one. Before any of that, though, people had already been putting down roots in this part of Dallas County.
Permanent settlement here goes back before the Civil War, with small farming communities and supply centers scratching their way into the Texas soil. So the land had a pulse long before the town had a name. Then came the Rock Island Railroad, pushing an extension from Fort Worth to Dallas.
And riding along with that project were two members of the survey party — J. O. Schulze, the chief of the survey, and a surveyor named Otis Brown.
While they were out working that line, the two of them looked at a stretch of land owned by a pioneer farmer named H. W. Britain and decided they'd like to own it.
Just over eighty acres changed hands, and just like that, Schulze and Brown were in the real estate business. They platted a townsite and gave it a name: Irving. Now here's where the story gets festive.
On December 19, 1903, Schulze and Brown threw a barbecue — because of course they did, this is Texas — and turned it into a lot auction. You want to be a founding citizen of this brand-new town? Come eat, come bid.
The first issue of the Irving Index was handed out right there to the folks in attendance. Approximately forty lots were sold that day, and construction of buildings began not long after. The post office that had been sitting over at a place called Kit picked up and moved to Irving in 1904.
That's the kind of thing that tells you a new town is serious. Irving was incorporated in 1914, and co-founder Otis Brown — the very surveyor who'd helped map the thing into existence — became its first mayor. The man helped draw the lines and then stepped up to lead what grew inside them.
For years Irving grew into a modest suburb of Dallas, steady and unassuming. But then came the last quarter of the twentieth century, and things got considerably less modest. The Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
Texas Stadium. The Las Colinas Business Park. Major economic growth, all of it, reshaping a town that had started with eighty acres, a barbecue, and forty lots sold on a December day in 1903.
Not bad for an afternoon's work.
What the marker says
Permanent settlement in this part of Dallas County began before the Civil War with the establishment of small farming communities and supply centers. In the early years of the 20th century, while working on the construction of the Rock Island Railroad extension from Fort Worth to Dallas, two members of the survey party--its chief, J. O. Schulze, and a surveyor, Otis Brown--purchased just over 80 acres of land from pioneer farmer H. W. Britain. Soon they had platted a townsite, which they named Irving. On December 19, 1903, Schulze and Brown held a barbecue and auction for the sale of town lots. The first issue of the Irving "Index" was distributed to those in attendance. Approximately 40 lots were sold, and construction of buildings soon began. The post office, which had been located at Kit, moved to Irving in 1904. Co-founder Otis Brown served as Irving's first mayor after the town was incorporated in 1914. Over the years Irving grew to be a modest suburb of Dallas. With the construction of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Texas Stadium, and the Las Colinas Business Park, Irving experienced major economic growth during the last quarter of the 20th century. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986