Dallas County

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to tell it right. Now, before Dallas was Dallas, before the skyline and the freeways and the Cotton Bowl, there was just a river. Three rivers, actually.

Or rather, three branches of one river, the Trinity, coming together at a spot folks took to calling Three Forks. That's where this story starts. When Texas became a Republic in 1836, the Trinity River was doing double duty as a boundary line: Robertson County sitting to the west of it, Nacogdoches County to the east.

All that land in between, wild and waiting. It didn't wait long. After 1841, Peters colonists began settling the area, and by 1842 a town named Dallas had taken root on this very site.

Now, the man who put it there (or at least led the charge) was one John Neely Bryan. And Bryan wasn't the type to stop at founding a town. By 1846 he was pushing to carve out a whole county, Dallas County, pulling together the settlements of Dallas, Cedar Springs, Farmers Branch, and Hord's Ridge under one roof, so to speak.

As for the name Dallas, the Legislature possibly named the county for George Mifflin Dallas, born 1792, died 1864, who at the time was serving as vice president of the United States. Possibly. That word does a lot of work out here on the Texas prairie.

Then in 1850 the town of Dallas was confirmed as county seat by election; made it official. That same year the census counted 2,743 settlers across the county, most of them farmers, hands in the soil, eyes on the horizon. For a while, that's what Dallas County was: farmland, row after row of it.

In 1885 you could buy an acre of that farmland for fifteen dollars. Fifteen dollars. Remember that number, because it's about to get interesting.

The railroads rolled in during the 1870s, and they changed everything. By 1880 the population had leaped all the way up to 33,488 people; a third of them living in the City of Dallas itself. The county was growing faster than the grass after a good spring rain.

Then came 1920, cotton prices briefly soaring, and that same farmland that went for fifteen dollars an acre back in 1885 was suddenly worth three hundred dollars an acre. Three hundred. That's the kind of number that makes a farmer stand up straight.

Railroads, interurban lines, highways; they all took turns nudging Dallas County away from the fields and toward the city. That push accelerated during the 1930s depression, of all times, and then after World War II the county became primarily urban. By 1980 the population stood at 1,556,549 people.

Less than two percent of them rural. Two percent. John Neely Bryan founded a town on a riverbank where three branches of the Trinity came together, pushed to create a county out of a handful of settlements, and somewhere along the way the farmers became the minority in their own county.

The Trinity's still out there, still flowing. Everything else just kept on growing.

What the marker says

Dallas County After Texas became a Republic in 1836, the Trinity River separated Robertson County to the west and Nacogdoches County to the east. This area, called "Three Forks" for the confluence of three branches of the Trinity, was settled mainly by Peters colonists after 1841. A town named Dallas was on this site by 1842. Its founder, John Neely Bryan, led efforts to create Dallas County in 1846, which included the settlements of Dallas, Cedar Springs, Farmers Branch, and Hord's Ridge. The Legislature possibly named the county for George Mifflin Dallas (1792 - 1864), then vice president of the United States. The town of Dallas was confirmed as county seat by election in 1850. The 1850 census showed 2,743 settlers in the county, most of whom were farmers. Railroads came in the 1870s and the population leaped in 1880 to 33,488, one-third living in the City of Dallas. In 1885 farmland sold for $15 per acre; by 1920, with cotton prices briefly soaring, farmland was worth $300 per acre. Railroads, interurban lines, and highways aided the urbanization of the county, which accelerated during the 1930s depression. After World War II the county became primarily urban. In 1980 the county population was 1,556,549, less than two per cent rural. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986