Bonham Grew from Fort Inglish and a Town Called Bois d'Arc

Bonham's origin story begins about two miles from today's downtown. Bailey Inglish built a two-story blockhouse there in 1837, and nearby families used its stockade as a refuge. The settlement around it became known as Bois d'Arc.

Bois d'Arc became the Fannin County seat in January 1843. The next year it was renamed Bonham for James Butler Bonham, an Alamo defender. The county itself had been created in 1837 and named for James Walker Fannin Jr., so town and county remember two different people.

Fort Inglish Village on West Sam Rayburn Drive is a 1976 replica rather than the original fort. Its stockade, relocated 1830s cabins, blacksmith shop, school-church, and other working spaces make the sequence of names easier to picture than a date on a marker does.