Fannin County

Fannin County was nearly named Independence. Daniel Rowlett's petition of October 5, 1837 asked Congress for a county west of Bois d'Arc Creek, and the name changed during debate. The act of November 28, 1839 stretched it across what became more than twenty counties, among them Grayson, Collin, Cooke, Denton, Wise and, far west, Childress, until the present boundaries were set on March 14, 1846. Its first county road ran from Rocky Ford Crossing to Daniel Montague's plantation, passed through Fort Warren and bridged Bois d'Arc Creek.

What the plaque says

Fannin County This area was first settled by Anglo- Americans who traveled up the Red River by steamboat in 1836. Fannin County was created in 1837, organized 1838, and named for James W. Fannin (1805-36), who was massacred with his soldiers at Goliad (March 27, 1836) after surrendering to the Mexican army. County officials first met at Jacob Black's cabin on the Red River. The county seat was moved in 1840 to Warren and in 1843 to Bois d' Arc, which was renamed in 1844 in honor of James Butler Bonham (1807-36), a hero of the siege of the Alamo.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 2.1 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 29 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.

More markers nearby

• Constantine Lodge No. 13, A. F. & A. M. — steps away
• Confederate Commissary — steps away
• Bonham Daily Favorite — steps away
• Site of Steger Opera House — steps away