Dr. Lilburn Howard Colley

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight. There's a man named Dr. L.

H. Colley, Lilburn Howard Colley, born 1843, died 1924, and before he ever set foot in North Texas, he'd already lived enough life for two men. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

That's not nothing. That's a man who'd seen the worst of things and still decided to start over. He and his wife, Martha Sabrina, she was a Fowks before she was a Colley, born 1860, died 1914, the two of them packed up from Missouri and migrated to Texas in 1880.

Now, Texas in 1880 is not a gentle proposition. But they came anyway. By 1885, they had settled in what was then called the Bransford Community, out in Tarrant County.

And Dr. Colley got to work. He became a respected physician in that community; the kind of doctor folks actually trusted; and he took on civic duties too, serving as an election official for the Pleasant Run School District.

So here's a man healin' the sick and runnin' elections both. Then comes 1914. A man named Walter G.

Couch opens a grocery store, just a two-room building, situated near the Colley home. And Dr. Colley, maybe looking out his window at that little store, maybe just feeling the weight of all those years in the community, suggested that the area be named Colleyville.

That suggestion stuck. Because that little two-room grocery store near one doctor's home eventually grew into something much bigger. The community expanded to take in Bransford, Old Union, Pleasant Glade, Pleasant Run, and Spring Garden.

One man, one name, one suggestion; and now it's on every road sign for miles. That's Colleyville, Texas. And now you know who asked for it.

What the marker says

A veteran of the Union Army during the Civil War, Dr. L. H. Colley (1843-1924) and his wife, Martha Sabrina (Fowks) (1860-1914), migrated from Missouri to Texas in 1880. They settled in Bransford Community in 1885, where Dr. Colley became a respected physician and an election official for the Pleasant Run School District. In 1914, when Walter G. Couch opened a grocery store in a two-room building near the Colley's home, Dr. Colley suggested naming the area Colleyville. The community has grown to include Bransford, Old Union, Pleasant Glade, Pleasant Run and Spring Garden. (1983)