Linden: how Cass County got its county seat

Cass County was created in 1846 from Bowie County in far northeast Texas. Jefferson was the first county seat. After several disputed elections, the seat moved to Linden in 1852.

The move happened partly because a new boundary split off Marion County. Jefferson went with it. A man named Major Wood laid out the new townsite of Linden and named it after a place in Tennessee.

Linden grew slowly. Farming, sawmilling, and later oil drove the local economy. The county covers 937 square miles. Much of it is covered in pine and hardwood forest. By the mid-1900s, the lumber industry produced tens of millions of board feet per year.

Oil exploration came to the county in the 1930s through the Rodessa oilfield. Today Linden is still the county seat. Atlanta is the county's largest city. The Handbook of Texas, published by the Texas State Historical Association, covers this history in detail.