Forney

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Forney, Kaufman County, Texas. Now before there was a town, before there was even a name, there was a trail. A Native American trail, sometimes called the Kickapoo Trace, cutting right through this stretch of blackland prairie.

Then came the early Anglo-American roads, and on their heels came the settlers. Isaac Briscoe and Jacob Sheltman put down roots here in the mid-1840s, and the land started its long conversation with civilization. By 1871, a village called Brooklyn had taken shape (and I want you to picture this) about one mile south of where Forney stands today.

Now Brooklyn wasn't sprawling, but it had what a community needs to hold together: a combined school, church, and lodge building all under one roof, a general store, a saloon, and a blacksmith shop. That's a village doing its level best. Then 1873 arrived, and with it the Texas and Pacific Railroad.

The line came through, and Brooklyn did what sensible people do when the railroad passes them by; it moved. Business and housing shifted north to meet the tracks. A post office opened that same year, and the village got a new name: Forney, after a noted railroad official by the name of John W.

Forney. Now here's where it gets interesting. By 1891, just eighteen years after that railroad pushed through, Forney had more than fifty business establishments.

Fifty. A bank. An opera house.

Two hotels. This was not a sleepy stop on the line. This was a town with ambition and a good tailor, probably.

And it had something else: product. Cotton moved through here. Bois d'Arc wood products.

And the crown jewel: the area's nationally recognized blackland prairie hay, shipped by rail right out of Forney and known across the country. The town prospered, and it had every reason to. The 1920s brought two more threads through the fabric of the place.

U.S. Highway 80 (the Dixie Highway) came rolling through, and so did an interurban railroad. Forney was connected, woven into the larger world in ways the Kickapoo Trace could only have hinted at.

But the Great Depression hit, and it hit hard. Forney's agricultural economy declined for several decades; not a quick stumble, but a long, slow lean into the wind. The cotton, the hay, the hustle of those fifty-plus businesses, all of it dimmed.

And yet. Forney came back, not as the same town, but as something new. A bedroom community of Dallas, Texas.

The trail that once carried travelers through this prairie eventually carried commuters home. Same land, different story; and Forney's still tellin' it.

What the marker says

A Native American trail, sometimes referred to as the Kickapoo Trace, and early Anglo-American roads traversed this area prior to the settlement of the pioneer families of Isaac Briscoe and Jacob Sheltman in the mid-1840s. By 1871 a village called Brooklyn, which included a combined school, church, and lodge building, general store, saloon, and blacksmith shop, was established about one mile south of here. Brooklyn's business and housing activity shifted here after the Texas & Pacific Railroad extended its line through this area in 1873. A post office opened in 1873 and the town was renamed Forney for noted railroad official John W. Forney. By 1891 Forney had become a bustling town with more than 50 business establishments including a bank, opera house, and two hotels. Ranch and farm produce, including cotton, Bois d'Arc wood products, and the area's nationally recognized blackland prairie hay were shipped by rail at Forney and the town prospered. In the 1920s U.S. Highway 80 (The Dixie Highway) and an interurban railroad came through the town. Beginning with the Great Depression Forney's agricultural economy declined for several decades. Eventually Forney experienced a revival of growth as a bedroom community of Dallas, Texas.