DENTON COUNTY AHGP HISTORY
"History of Texas; Fort Worth and the Texas Northwest Edition," B. B. Paddock, (1922)
This county was settled first in the early forties. It is located in the
second tier of counties south of the Red River and is west of Collin and
east of Wise counties. The county was created from Fannin in 1846
and was organized in July of that year. The first county seat was
Pinckneyville, which was situated about one and one-half miles east of
the present county site. Later the county seat was moved to a new
town, which was called Alton, and moved again to a new site, on the
banks of Hickory Creek, about six miles southeast of the city of Denton.
to a new town which was also called Alton or "New Alton." This move
was made necessary because of the failure to find sufficient water at the
first town of Alton. At the presidential election in 1856 the voters voted
to move the county seal to what is now the city of Denton. On January 10, 1857, the citizens and other interested individuals gathered at
the new town site and an auction was held by C. V Williams, who was
sheriff at that time and is still living in Denton. From that dale the
town of Denton dates its existence. Pilot Point is, however, the older
town and was settled and of some importance commercially several years
before the town of Denton existed.
Denton County has four railroads. The Texas and Pacific runs
through the county from northeast to southwest. The Gulf Colorado
and Santa Fe crosses tin- full length of the county from north to south.
The Dallas and Wichita Falls branch of the Katy was the first line built
in the county and runs from the southeast corner of the county through
lo the north line. The St. Louts and San Francisco Railway traverses
the country along tin east line of the count) and has two stations in
Denton County and several just across the line in Collin County, which
serve Denton people.
Railway stations in the county are: Denton, Pilot Point, Aubrey,
Sanger, Krum, Ponder, Roanoke, Argyle, Corinth, Garza, Lewisville, Mingo, Carney Spur and Hebron. Villages in the county not on
any line of railway are: Little Elm, Navo, Mustang, Bolivar, Stony,
Waketon and Parvin.
The census of 1920 gave the county 35,355 inhabitants. The towns
of the county which were incorporated in the last census were Denton,
7,625; Pilot Point, 1,399, and Sanger, 1,204.
The land in Denton County is divided into three distinct belts, which
arc: the Elm Flat country, cast of the Cross Timbers, and is a part of
the Black Belt, which includes Collin, Dallas and other counties of Central Texas. Joining this on the West is the belt of timbered land which
extends across Texas and known as the Lower Cross Timbers. West of
this belt lies what is known as Grand Prairie, which extends from the
Red River in Cooke County south and eastward to Tarrant and Johnson
counties.
The east part of the county is adapted to cotton, small grains and
corn the timbered belt raises cotton, peanuts, fruit and vegetables, while
the western prairies are largely cultivated in wheat, oats and other small
grains and constitute what is known as the Great Denton County Wheat
Belt. Denton County has an abundance of pure soft artesian water,
which may be procured practically anywhere in the county by drilling
from two hundred to six hundred feet.
The city of Denton, as stated elsewhere, has a population of 7,625
according to the last census, while the suburban parts of the city will
bring the population well up toward ten thousand, and it is safe to say
that one-third of the people in the county live within three miles of the
court house at the county seat.
Denton
The city is celebrated for the excellence and size of its educational
institutions. Beside one of the strongest city school systems in the state
which boast a daily attendance of more than two thousand students, the
town has within its borders two of the great educational institutions of the
state in the North Texas State Normal, with a record of 3,017 (duplicates excluded), enrolled students in one year and the College of Industrial Arts for young women, which is one of the largest schools of its
kind in the United States, boasting an enrollment exceeded by only two
female colleges in the nation. It has a record of 2,162 students in one
year.
These schools are perhaps the greatest asset the city has. although the
agricultural and livestock interests are large and have grown greatly in
the past few years. The Denton Dairy Association has more than two
hundred members, and the daily production of milk is the largest of any
single community in the state, unless it be some of the large cities where
the dairy industry is spread over a much wider district. The town has
two flouring mills, with a combined capacity of some seven hundred barrels of flour, and as much meal and feed.
A brick factory turns out the highest grade of brick in the South-
west, and Denton brick are found as the finishing brick in almost all the
great buildings of the larger cities of the state and neighboring states.
Other industries are a cotton oil mill, with a capacity of 80 tons of
seed per day; an ice factory of 60 tons capacity daily; municipally
owned water, light and power plant, sewer plant, fence factory, machine
shop. There are five public school buildings, representing an investment
of $250,000, and the usual complement of mercantile establishments
incident to a town of its size.
The people are almost all descendants of the old South, and the
whole population is of a high class, with no undesirable foreign element
and very few who do not boast a forward look toward better things in
education and civic life.
This website created March 12, 2014 by Sheryl McClure.
� Texas American History and Genealogy Project
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