Trenton

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Trenton, up there in Fannin County. Now, every good Texas town has got a story, and Trenton's starts in a place called Wildcat Thicket. That's what the early settlers called this stretch of fertile farmland, back in the mid-1800s, when the first Anglo folks started filtering in, drawn by the promise of good ground to work.

Wildcat Thicket. You have to admit, that name carries a little more electricity than what came after. By the 1870s, though, a real community had begun to take shape, and a settler by the name of A.

J. Russell reportedly gave it a new name. He called it Trenton, after a hospital where he'd been treated during the Civil War.

A town named out of memory, maybe out of gratitude. There's something to sit with. Then came 1881, and with it two things that could make or break a frontier community: the railroad and a post office, both arriving the same year.

The town began to boom. By 1885, several thriving businesses were already in operation, and in 1890 Trenton was incorporated, official as sunrise. A few years into the new century, a man named Dr.

W. C. Holmes, a former Trenton mayor and a figure the marker calls an active citizen, started putting out a weekly paper called the Trenton Tribune, beginning in 1909.

Now here's the part that doesn't always get said out loud. The 20th century had a way of swallowing up small Texas towns whole. Neighbors of Trenton didn't all make it.

But Trenton maintained its size, outlasting many of them. Started as a thicket, became a boom, and kept right on going. The marker says Trenton remains a bustling community, and sometimes that's the whole story worth telling.

What the marker says

The earliest Anglo settlers in this area, drawn to the fertile farmlands, probably came to the locality known as Wildcat Thicket in the mid-1800s. By the 1870s a community had begun to form, and settler A. J. Russell reportedly named Trenton for a hospital in which he's been treated during the Civil War. The railroad arrived in Trenton in 1881, the same year a post office was established, and the town began to boom. By 1885 there were several thriving businesses in operation. Trenton was incorporated in 1890. Dr. W. C. Holmes, a former Trenton mayor and active citizen, began to publish the weekly "Trenton Tribune" in 1909. The town maintained its size during the 20th century, outlasting many of its neighbors. Trenton remains a bustling community. (1999)