Dallas County Was Created in 1846

Dallas County was officially created on March 30, 1846. It was carved out of parts of Nacogdoches and Robertson counties. The 1850 census counted 2,743 people living in the county.

Dallas was not the obvious choice for county seat. It won the honor by beating a rival town called Hord's Ridge in a close runoff election, 244 votes to 216. The county kept growing after that. By 1860, the population had risen to 8,665. The county's early growth set the stage for everything that followed, including the arrival of the railroads in the 1870s.