An Old Town!
Bonham is one of the oldest settlements along the Red River. It began its life as Bois
d'Arc, a name taken from the creek that runs on the east side of town (and a very
prolific tree in the Cross Timbers).  Anchored by the private Fort Inglish, the first
Anglo settlers appeared in the late 1820s. Though both pioneers and Indians used
the Fort as a trading post and pit stop on their way west, many Anglos decided to
stay put and farm in the fertile valley.

By 1836, the area had lost its native Caddoan population, which had merged with the
Wichitas (further upstream) after the Caddoans had been decimated by smallpox.
However, bands of Comanches seemed threatening enough to warrant a larger fort.  
Fort Warren was built, which now lies under a filed in the small town of  Savoy. The
fort once had been considered as county seat for Fannin county. But Bois d'Arc,
which was renamed Bonham in 1844 in honor of the Alamo fighter James B.
Bonham, became the choice because it seemed to be the more stable town.

An Old County!
Fannin County had been carved out of Red River County. It encompassed a huge area
in the years of the Texas Republic. Within its boundaries were several counties that,
when named years later, read like a who's who of the Red River Valley: Grayson,
Collin, Cooke, Denton, Montague, Wise, Clay, Jack, Wichita, Archer, Young,
Wilbarger, Baylor, Throckmorton, Hardeman, Foard, Knox, Haskell, Stonewall, King,
Cottle, Childress, and parts of Hunt and Collingsworth counties (maybe I should have
named my website Fannin Valley Historian? Just kidding...)

During the Civil War, Bonham voted for secession unlike neighboring Paris, and
became the headquarters for Henry E. McCullough's regiment. The ladies in Bonham
also nursed southern soldiers back to health in the local Confederate Hospital.

The industrial age was both kind and bittersweet for Bonham. The city became a
busy trading center for farms north and south of the river, served as the division
point of the Texas and Pacific railroads (with lines to Denison and lines to Dallas),
and operated the largest cotton mill west of the Mississippi. But economic
downturns also hit the city hard. Crop failures, rapid farm method modernization,
and competition by larger, corporate farm holdings held Bonham in  the farming
slump that dogged most of rural Texas from the early 1920s until World War II.

Bonham's Favorite Child
Luckily, Bonham had a friend in a very high place. Sam Rayburn, the longest serving
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives called Bonham home. Born in 1882 in
Tennessee, he pioneered to Texas as a toddler with his family, and eventually
studied at East Texas Normal College (today's Texas A&M University - Commerce).
He began his political career in 1913, and played a part in many of historic events of
the 20th Century. He served for 48 years and determined the fate of this country
through World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. Imagine -
his 92 years of life encompassed more change than most of history saw within a
500 year span.

Rayburn helped the Red River Valley region in numerous ways. He was instrumental
in building Lake Texoma, Lake Lavon, and several Veteran's hospitals, as well as
modernizing Perrin (Sherman) and Jones (Bonham) air fields during WWII. In his
career, he was closely associated with two men with ties to the Red River Valley -
John Nance Garner, FDR's vice president, who was from Detroit (Red River County),
and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was born in Denison. Rayburn's ties went
even deeper - he was baptized at the Primitive Baptist Church in tiny Tioga (Grayson
County).

When Rayburn died in 1961, Bonham played host to several prominent men. John F.
Kennedy, Lydon B. Johnson (whom Rayburn mentored), Eisenhower, and Harry S
Truman were among the many who attended his funeral.

A City that Knows Its Heritage
Today, Bonham is pround of its past, and it shows. Fort Inglish has been rebuilt and
is available for touring. The beautiful train station is home to an informative county
museum, Bonham Lake State Park offers fishing and mountain biking, and the city
hosts Trade Days every first weekend of the month. Sam Rayburn is just about
everywhere, too. His library, opened in 1957 and part of the Texas State library
system, houses his vast collection of books and papers, as well as a duplicate of his
congressional office, and his childhood home is a State Historical Park. The original
courthouse unfortunately became 'modernized' in the 1960s and now sits
nondescriptly in the middle of a booming downtown.
To cyber-visit Bonham, you
can go to the Bonham
Chamber of Commerce or
the city site.
The old train station is now the county
museum.
What to Do and See:

Fort Inglish
Tours offered April through
September
Tuedays - Saturdays, 10a-12p and
1p-3p
(903) 583-3943

Fannin County Historical Museum
April through September
Tuesday - Saturday, 10a-4p
September - March
Tuesday - Saturday, 12p-4p
(903) 583-8042

Sam Rayburn Library
Monday - Friday, 9a-5p
Saturday 1p-5p
(903) 583-2455

Sam Rayburn House
Tuesday - Friday 8a-5p
Saturday 9a-5p
(903) 583-5558
How to get there:
Bonham lies on US 82 between Paris (east)
and Sherman (west). From Dallas, you can
take Highway 121 north and follow it to
Bonham. Or, just go to the map.
I love old buildings, and Bonham's full of them. This
place sits next to the rail road tracks.
Bonham - City
with Connections