Community of Little Elm

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the community of Little Elm. Now, every good Texas town has a beginning, and Little Elm's goes way back. All the way back to a Republic.

The Republic of Texas, to be exact. In 1841, the Republic issued what was called a Peters Colony empresario grant, and the land where Little Elm now sits was part of that very grant. That's old ground.

Among the first colonists to come claim a piece of it were John and Delilah King. They packed up from North Carolina in 1844 (long journey, that) and settled a 640-acre tract about one mile southwest of where this marker stands. John didn't live to see much of what grew from that decision; he passed in 1846.

But Delilah, born in 1806, lived all the way to 1884. She saw a lot of changes on that land. Their son, C.

C. King (folks called him Kit, born in 1823), he was the kind of man a young settlement needs. Around 1845, Kit helped organize the first mail service in the area.

Now think about that for a moment: out here on the edge of the frontier, somebody had to make sure the letters got through. Kit King was that somebody. And when Little Elm's post office was officially established in 1852, he was appointed postmaster.

You could say the mail was in the family. There was another name worth remembering from those early days: William Dickson. He became the first elected judge of Denton County, serving from 1848 to 1852.

The law had to start somewhere out here, and it started with Dickson. Now, the community itself (named for a nearby creek) didn't spring up from one single settlement. Little Elm was formed by the consolidation of several small communities: Lloyd, Hackberry, Dickson, and Hilltown.

Four little clusters of people that decided, together, they were something more. As the town took shape, it acquired a school, churches, a cotton gin, grocery stores, drug stores. The ordinary architecture of a place that means to stay.

Then came the water. Lake Dallas was created in 1925 and 1926, and that brought a new kind of growth: recreational development, pulling people toward Little Elm for reasons beyond just settling land. Then in the mid-1950s, the Garza-Little Elm Reservoir was built.

The one the world knows today as Lake Lewisville. And here's where the story takes a turn that could've gone badly. The construction of that reservoir forced the relocation of historic structures, roads, and cemeteries threatened by the rising water.

Think on that: whole cemeteries moved, whole roads rerouted. That's a community asked to pick up its past and carry it to higher ground. A lot of towns don't survive that kind of disruption.

But Little Elm wasn't done. The proximity to Lake Lewisville, the nearby pull of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and population coming in from the larger cities around it, all of it caused Little Elm to grow instead of falter. In 1966, the town was officially incorporated.

From a Peters Colony grant in 1841, to a 640-acre farm, to a postmaster named Kit, to a judge named Dickson, to four little settlements becoming one, to rising water and a town that rose right along with it. Little Elm didn't just survive its history. It kept making more of it.

What the marker says

The community of Little Elm is located on land that was part of the original Peters Colony empresario grant awarded by the Republic of Texas in 1841. Among the earliest colonists in this vicinity to receive land under the Peters grant were John (d. 1846) and Delilah (1806 - 1884) King, who moved from North Carolina in 1844 to settle a 640-acre tract about one mile southwest of this site. Their son, C. C. "Kit" King (1823 - 1880), helped organize the first mail service in this area about 1845. When Little Elm post office was established in 1852, he was appointed postmaster. Another pioneer resident, William Dickson, was the first elected judge of Denton County, 1848-52. Named for a nearby creek, the community of Little Elm was formed by the consolidation of several small settlements, including Lloyd, Hackberry, Dickson, and Hilltown. As it grew, the town acquired a school, churches, a cotton gin, and grocery and drug stores. Further growth accompanied the development of recreational facilities following the creation of Lake Dallas in 1925-26 and Garza-Little Elm Reservoir (now known as Lake Lewisville) in the mid-1950s. Construction of the reservoir prompted relocation of many historic structures, roads, and cemeteries that were threatened by rising water. However, the community's proximity to Lake Lewisville and to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, along with population immigration from nearby large cities, caused Little Elm to grow instead of falter, and the town was officially incorporated in 1966. (1976, 2010)