City of Dallas
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
City of Dallas Pioneer John Neely Bryan (1810 - 1877) settled on the banks of the Trinity River just west of this site in 1841. A town he called Dallas grew up around his cabin. Chosen as county seat four years after the creation of Dallas County in 1846, the City of Dallas was incorporated in 1856, with Dr. Sam B. Pryor serving as first Mayor. Although John Neely Bryan had anticipated that river navigation would lead to growth for the city, it was the arrival of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1872 and the Texas and Pacific Rail Line the following year that helped to establish Dallas as a major commercial center. By 1890, Dallas was the state's most populous city. Wheat and cotton production provided impetus for continued growth. Insurance and banking also contributed to the city's prosperity, and its selection as the site for a regional Federal Reserve Bank in 1914 was an economic milestone. Following the discovery of oil in East Texas in 1930, Dallas banks concentrated on providing financial services for that industry. Noted throughout its history for aggressive civic leaders, Dallas won the right to host the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dallas began in 1841 as a single cabin on the Trinity River, where pioneer John Neely Bryan hoped river navigation would build a city. Instead it was the railroads — the Houston and Texas Central in 1872 and the Texas and Pacific the next year — that turned the young county seat into a commercial powerhouse. By 1890 Dallas was the state's most populous city, its fortunes riding on cotton, wheat, banking, and later East Texas oil, and in 1936 it hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition.
Why it matters
Dallas is a classic story of how railroads, not rivers, decided which American towns became great cities in the late nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · John Neely Bryan
- · Sam B. Pryor
Related events
- · Texas Centennial Exposition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cedar Springs
Dallas, TX
Surveyed in the late 1830s during preparations for a military road, the Cedar Springs area drew Dr. John Cole and his family in 1843 under a Peters colony land grant. Cole built a home and store near the springs, and a small community with a distillery, flour mill, and grist mill grew up around them. After Dallas was chosen county seat in 1850 the town faded, later revived as the suburb of Oak Lawn and absorbed into Dallas between 1920 and 1940.
James Martin Patterson
Dallas, TX
Kentucky-born James Martin Patterson reached Dallas in 1846 and, with partner John W. Smith, pooled $700 to open one of the town's first stores. Ever the venturer, in 1851 the pair built a flatboat and tried to float cotton down the Trinity River toward the Gulf — a bold bid to give landlocked North Texas a route to market. Patterson went on to serve as county judge from 1854 to 1866 and managed extensive landholdings until his death at ninety-four.
Site of Sanger Brothers Department Store
Dallas, TX
The Sanger Brothers retail empire traces to 1857, when German immigrant Isaac Sanger opened a small dry-goods store in McKinney and was later joined by his brothers Lehman, Philip, Alex, and Sam. The first store under the Sanger Bros. name opened in Bryan in 1867, and the family shrewdly planted new stores along the advancing railroad, reaching Dallas in 1872. Nationally known for innovative marketing and merchandising, the firm helped drive the city's commercial rise.
Junction of the Texas & Pacific and Houston & Texas Central Railroads
Dallas, TX
Dallas cemented its place as North Texas's commercial hub when the Texas & Pacific and Houston & Texas Central lines crossed here in 1873. City and county leaders had paid the H&TC $5,000 to bend its route toward town, then engineered a legislative rider forcing the T&P to cross near Browder's Springs — conveniently close to the courthouse — before sweetening the deal with bonds and right-of-way along what became Pacific Avenue. The result was one of Texas's first rail crossroads.