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Grayson County TX
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TOM BEAN, TEXAS

Grayson County, North Central Texas

33°31'15"N 96°28'58"W (33.520811, -96.482826)

Highway 11 and FM 902 and FM 2729
25 miles S of the Red River
11 miles SE of Sherman the county seat
8 miles E of Howe
6 miles W of Whitewright
60 miles N of Dallas
Population: 1,081 Est. (2019)
1,045 (2010) 941 (2000) 827 (1990)

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Tom BeanT X Depot 1916
Tom Bean Depot 1916
Postcard courtesy www.rootsweb.com/ %7Etxpstcrd/
See Texas Depots | Texas Railroads

History in a Pecan Shell

Named after the colorful and mysterious surveyor from Bonham, the town developed around 1888 when the railroad arrived and the post office opened.

Mr. Bean donated 50 acres for a townsite - including the railroad right-of-way. The railroad drew off of the population of nearby White Mound and soon Tom Bean (the town) was thriving. The population reached 299 in 1900 and by the mid-20s there were 367 Beanites, Beansonians or Beanilains. After the 1950s the population grew slowly. It was 570 by the mid-1970s and it seems to have peaked in the late 80s with 926 residents.


See
City of Tom Bean Historical Marker
Tom Bean - The Man

Tom Bean Texas City Hall
Tom Bean City Hall
Photo courtesy Mike Price, 2007

Historical Marker

City of Tom Bean

Tom Bean, a wealthy Bonham landowner and surveyor, donated fifty acres of land in southeast Grayson County to be used for a branch railroad line from Sherman to Commerce. Bean died in 1887; in that year the city of Tom Bean was established. Nearby Whitemound, which was bypassed by the railroad, lost its post office to Tom Bean's city in 1888; many Whitemound settlers moved to the new town.

Mr. Bean's estate began to sell town lots surrounding the railroad in the 1890s. The city school was moved in 1891 from a one-room structure to a two-story building with an auditorium. Several Christian denominations, including the Church of Christ, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist, established churches in town. The city charter was signed in 1897 and the first mayor was Ice B. Reeves.

In the early days of the 20th century, the city boomed. Within a few years, it boasted a grain company, a furniture company, a drugstore, a newspaper called the "Tom Bean Bulletin," a saloon, a dance hall, a movie theater, and the Tom Bean Social Club. As time progressed, the sharp increase in automobile travel and transport, and the decline of cotton as the principal crop of the area, led businesses to the larger cities of Denison and Sherman. Though never again the railroad boomtown of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the community enjoyed a growth spurt in the 1950s, celebrating its centennial in 1987, the city of Tom Bean continues to thrive.
(1998)


Tom Bean Tx - First United Methodist Church
First United Methodist Church
Photo courtesy Barcly Gibson, 2009

Tom Bean Tx - First United Methodist Church bell
Church bell
Photo courtesy Barcly Gibson, 2009
See Texas Churches

Tom Bean Tx Mill

Tom Bean water tower & silos
Photo courtesy Barcly Gibson, 2009
More Texas Water Towers | Texas Grain Elevators


Tom Bean Tx City Limit Road Sign
Tom Bean City Limit
Photo courtesy Barcly Gibson, 2009



Take a road trip
North Central Texas

Tom Bean, Texas Nearby Towns:
Sherman the county seat
Whitewright
Bonham
Denison
Dallas
See Grayson County

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