City of Cedar Hill
Cedar Hill, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
City of Cedar Hill Prospective settlers who traveled to this area during the 19th century were attracted to its high prairie hill and established a community here known as Cedar Hill in the late 1840s. Its early economy was based on providing support services for the surrounding farm communities. Cedar Hill was struck by a disastrous tornado in 1856, which slowed growth until the railroad came through in 1882. The town experienced a transition from rural to urban development during the late 20th century. It remains one of Dallas County's oldest settlements.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlers drawn to a high prairie hilltop founded Cedar Hill in the late 1840s, when this was still the frontier edge of a young Texas. Its early economy served the surrounding farms until a disastrous tornado in 1856 checked its growth, and the arrival of the railroad in 1882 revived it. In the late twentieth century the old farm town gave way to suburban Dallas.
Why it matters
One of Dallas County's oldest settlements, Cedar Hill traces the full arc of a Texas community from frontier farm village to modern suburb.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · 1856 tornado
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Penn Springs
Duncanville, TX
Two springs feeding a natural pool made this a vital watering place, first for Native peoples and later for the wagon trains and cattle drives moving along the Shawnee Trail. Major John Penn of Illinois settled his family here in the 1850s after first visiting in 1848, and on July 4, 1882, the springs hosted a Confederate reunion of Parson's Texas Cavalry. The Penns held the land until 1895 as Duncanville grew around it.
Duncanville
Duncanville, TX
First settled by farmers and ranchers in the 1840s and 1850s, this area became "Duncan Switch" in 1881 when the Chicago, Texas & Mexican Central Railroad built a switching station, with local resident John Duncan securing the right-of-way. When a post office application under the name Duncan was denied, the town became Duncanville, opening its post office in 1882. Growth stayed gradual — barely 300 residents by the 1930s — until postwar suburban expansion from nearby Dallas transformed it into a fast-growing commercial center.
Pleasant Run
Lancaster, TX
Madison Moultrie Miller came west from Alabama and rode with 'Bigfoot' Wallace as a Texas Ranger before settling near present Lancaster in 1846. He built up a sprawling frontier enterprise — a home-store stocked with New York silks and hardware, a grist mill, stage stand, hotel, blacksmith and tin shops — and became the first postmaster of Pleasant Run in 1848. He laid out a town and worked to bring river navigation and railroads to Dallas County, but his death at 46 stalled the community's growth.
Jordan-Bowles House
Grand Prairie, TX
David Jordan, who came to Texas from Tennessee around 1859, built this house about 1860 from hand-hewn logs cut in the Trinity River bottomlands. A farmer, he also ran a store and a stage stand on the Dallas-Fort Worth Road in a time of frequent Indian raids — the outlaw Sam Bass gang was even suspected of an 1870 holdup nearby. Victor Bowles bought the property in 1886, keeping it in his family for 65 years, until Minnie Bowles remodeled it and donated it to the city in 1951 as a museum and meeting place.