Texas History and Genealogy - presented by Genealogy Trails

Anglo settlement began after William S. Peters, of Louisville, Kentucky, and several others, obtained a land grant from the Texas Congress in 1841. The land settled by their company, the Texian Land and Immigration Company, became known as the Peters colony. Their grant included all of the future Denton County, as well as parts or all of several other future counties. The earliest settlement in what became Denton County was in the southeastern section, near the site of present Hebron, and most of the early residents took up land in the Cross Timbers. Although a few came from the lower South, most antebellum settlers in the area came from the upper South.

In 1846, the Texas legislature formed Denton County out of what had been a much larger Fannin County. It was named for John Bunyan Denton, an eastern Fannin County Methodist preacher and lawyer, who was killed in a raid against Indians in northern Tarrant County on May 22, 1841. A county seat, named Pinckneyville, was located near the center of the county, at a spot about a mile southeast of the present center of Denton. Although county officials were elected in 1846, no courthouse was built, and less than two years later a site named Alton, three or four miles to the southeast, was made county seat.

Cities and towns

Aubrey Double Oak Krugerville Pilot Point

Bartonville Flower Mound Krum Plano †

Carrollton † Fort Worth † Lake Dallas Ponder

Copper Canyon Frisco † Lakewood Village Roanoke

Corinth Hackberry Lewisville Sanger

Corral City Haslet Lincoln Park Shady Shores

Cross Roads Hebron Little Elm Southlake †

Dallas † Hickory Creek Marshall Creek The Colony

Denton Highland Village Northlake Trophy Club

DISH Justin Oak Point Westlake †