|
|
ROCKWALL HISTORY
Rockwall
County was established in 1873 after residents of the north part of
Kaufman County complained that the county seat was too far to travel in
order to do business at the courthouse especially in cold and wet
weather. C. L. Jones and Col. Griffith traveled to Austin in 1873 and
obtained the charter for the county. The county was named for the
underground formation of rock wall as was the city of Rockwall. The
county was a part of Henderson County and before that Nacogdoches County
before it became a part of Kaufman County. It is the smallest county in
Texas.
The area that is now Rockwall County was a part of Mercer's Colony,
named for Charles Finton Mercer of Virginia. A graduate of Princeton, he
became interested in Texas in 1841. He came to Peter's Colony (Dallas
area) in 1843, was given impresario rights to bring in 100 families in
three years for his colony. He brought in only 108 people in a few
years. He was one of first colonizers of Kaufman-Rockwall County. The
area starts at McKinney, goes to Cumby, to Athens, to Cedar Creek, to
Waco area, to Peters Colony, to McKinney. '(Information came from Pat
Costello of Forney, historian.) Many people started to Peter's Colony
and when they got to the East Fork of the Trinity River could not cross
due to flooding and then stayed in Mercer's Colony.
The City of Rockwall was named for the rock formation underground after
the town founders could not agree on naming the town after one of them,
Boystun, Bowles, and Elgin. The town was plated in 1854. The first
settlers came to the area in the 1840's.
Royse City was named for G. B. Royse who platted the town site in 1886
after the MK&T Railroad had come through. Nancy McCasland, a widow, is
considered the founder of the town in about 1849.
Heath was named for an early settler, E. C. Heath. It was first called
Black Hills, then Willow Springs. The Heath area
drew the first settlers to what is now Rockwall County. The first post
office for Rockwall County was located in Mr. J. O. Heath's cabin. It
was first called Trinity, Forks of Trinity, and Black Hills. J. O. was
E. C.'s father who received a land grant of 620 Acres in Mercer's in
1846.
Fate was first known as Barnes, named after Dr. W. T. Barnes who owned
the land before dividing it into lots. When the MK&T railroad came
through the small town, it began to grow and drew citizens from Old Fate
as the railroad did not run by that town. This was in 1886. The official
document for the name change occurred in February 1887. |