Railroads in the 1870s–1890s Opened Collin County to Large-Scale Farming

Before the Houston and Texas Central Railway reached the county in 1872, farmers had no practical way to get crops to markets more than 150 miles away. Because of this, the county never developed a large plantation economy. That was true even though most settlers came from the upper South.

After the railroad arrived, five more rail lines followed by the mid-1890s. Farmers could now sell crops profitably on the fertile Blackland Prairie soils. Farm output grew sharply between 1870 and 1920. The county population rose from about 9,000 in 1860 to nearly 50,000 by 1920.