Garland

Garland was born of a quarrel. The Handbook of Texas says the Santa Fe and the Dallas and Greenville railroads bypassed Duck Creek in 1886, so two new towns grew: Embree to the east and a second Duck Creek to the north. Embree moved to incorporate and was accused of counting some of Duck Creek's people to reach the minimum, and the fight reached court. Congressman Joseph Abbott settled it late in 1887 by putting the post office between them under the name Garland. Legend says both sides agreed because the attorney general honored had never been to Texas.

What the plaque says

Garland Settlement of this area began in the 1840s. A small community named Duck Creek was established and by 1846 a log cabin was serving as a community center, school, and Union Church. Early businesses included a general store, grist mill, and cotton gin. In 1886 The Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe Railroad built a line through Dallas County, passing about one mile east of Duck Creek. A new town, named Embree in honor of one of Duck Creek's early doctors, was laid out along the rail line. The Missouri, Kansas, & Texas Railroad built a second rail line north of the Santa Fe Tracks. The original Duck Creek settlement declined in favor of New Duck Creek on the MKT Rail Line. A U.S. Post Office was authorized for the area in 1887 and was positioned between the two towns. Named for U.S. Attorney General A. H. Garland, the site became a new town into which the earlier communities merged. The citizens voted to incorporate in 1891, and M. Davis Williams was elected first mayor. Garland flourished in the early 20th century and survived the Great Depression. Rapid transportation and industrial growth following World War II changed the city's economic base. Garland continues to be an important part of Dallas County history. (1991)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 11 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Fair Park — 12 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 12 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 13 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.

More markers nearby

• First Christian Church of Garland — steps away
• First Methodist Church of Garland — 0.2 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Garland — 0.3 mi
• Garland Lodge No. 441, A.F. & A.M. — 0.5 mi