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TRENTON, TEXAS
Fannin County,
North Central Texas
Highways 121, 69, and FMs 151, 814, and 815
12 Miles SW of Bonham
24 Miles SE of Sherman
27 Miles NW of Greenville
Population
662 (2000)
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Trenton's
tin man
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, February 2007 |
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History in
a Pecan Shell
Tennesseans arrived by wagon train from their home state in 1852 when
the settlement was known by the colorful name of Wild Cat Thicket.
With the arrival of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad, a townsite
was platted by Dr. W. C. Holmes, known as "the father of Trenton."
The name Trenton was submitted to the postal authorities (after Trenton,
New Jersey) and the post office opened under that name in 1881.
The railroad drew people from nearby communities and a depot was built.
The first population figures available show 200 people living there
in the mid-1880s. Fifteen years later the population was 300 and the
town had a school and all essential businesses, including a newspaper.
By the mid-1920s the population rose to just over 600 people and the
Trenton school system had 300 students enrolled. In the early 1930s
the town became a shipping point for onions
- with 158 railroad cars sent out from the Trenton area in 1933 alone.
But the Great Depression was in full swing and Trenton's population
declined to less than 500 by 1936.
After WWII, it rose to just over 600 and by the late 1960s it had
reached a new high-water mark of 712.
The town continues to grow onions as a crop, although the population
has settled in around 662. |
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