Trenton
Trenton, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Drawn by fertile farmland, the earliest Anglo settlers reached this Fannin County locality—known as Wildcat Thicket—by the mid-1800s, and a community had formed by the 1870s. Settler A. J. Russell is said to have named Trenton for a hospital where he was treated during the Civil War. The railroad's arrival in 1881, along with a new post office, sparked a boom; Trenton incorporated in 1890 and outlasted many neighboring towns through the 20th century.
Why it matters
Trenton's survival where other rail-era towns faded illustrates how the railroad made and unmade the small farming communities of North Texas.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · A. J. Russell
- · Dr. W. C. Holmes
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Valley Creek
Leonard, TX
In 1869, eleven Presbyterian families from New York migrated to this spot to establish a mission colony, organized by Howard L. Parmele and his brother-in-law Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. Named for a nearby stream, Valley Creek blossomed in the 1870s with a store, sawmill, cotton gin, school, hotel, and churches, and formally organized its Presbyterian congregation in 1875. But when the railroads bypassed it in 1880 the town withered, its businesses moving to nearby Leonard, until only a church and cemetery remained.
Leonard
Leonard, TX
Settlers reached this corner of Fannin County in the 1840s and 50s, among them Solomon L. Leonard, a Confederate sympathizer who amassed 10,000 acres around Wildcat Thicket — a tangle of brush where fugitives and outlaws, and figures of the bloody Reconstruction-era Lee-Peacock feud, took cover. When the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad arrived in 1880, Leonard's heirs platted a townsite and auctioned lots at a picnic on this very square, an event still held every year. A saloon, hotel, post office, newspaper, and school followed, and Leonard became the market town of a rich farming district.
Savage
Leonard, TX
After the Civil War, crossroads hamlets sprang up wherever a store could serve scattered farm families, and Savage community in Fannin County began just that way. William "Uncle Billy" Savage and his wife Elizabeth settled here in 1869 and, because the roads were so poor, kept extra goods to sell their neighbors; their store drew a doctor, blacksmith, cotton gin, school, church, and a post office by 1891. When new roads bypassed the village after World War I, Savage faded, and today its memory survives mainly in annual reunions.
City of Tom Bean
Tom Bean, TX
Wealthy Bonham landowner and surveyor Thomas Bean donated fifty acres for a branch railroad from Sherman to Commerce, and the town of Tom Bean sprang up in 1887, the year he died. Nearby Whitemound, bypassed by the rails, lost its post office and its settlers to the new town. By the early 1900s Tom Bean boomed with a grain company, drugstore, newspaper, saloon, dance hall, and movie theater—until cars and the decline of cotton drew business away to Denison and Sherman.