Debrett's Texas Peerage page 300:
Bryan had the distinction of being the first settler in Dallas TX. From his cabin there he
plowed the land in his buckskin suit with a bois d'arc fork & crossed the river in a
cottonwood dugout. His home was the first post office & courtroom in Dallas, TX. He
became a lawyer & served as a Dallas alderman. Born in Fayetteville, TN, in 1810.
Married MARGARET BEEMAN, one of the first settlers in Dallas, where he had a famliy. Died
in Austin in 1877.
20th century descendents include the families of Alexander Luter BRYAN, Robert Alexander
WARNER, Ross Willard BROWN, Minor Lafayette WOOLLEY, Samuel Gayle Deatherage, Jasper Clark
BOX.
[DRT nos, 5464, 5581, 5758.]
History
French traders had contact with the Anadarko people in the area around Dallas in the
1700s. In 1841 John Neely Bryan founded a trading post on the east bank of the Trinity
River, near the junction of two Native American trails. Bryan was unaware that he had
settled on land granted by the Texas republic to an immigration company, but he eventually
legalized his claim. The extensive promotion efforts of the company brought settlers to
the area, and in 1844 a town site was laid out. The town was incorporated in 1856, and in
the late 1850s, the collapse of a nearby cooperative community, La Réunion, augmented the
population and added skilled European craftspeople to the workforce. In March 1861 Texas
seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America. During the American
Civil War (1861-1865), Dallas served as a supply and storage post for the state. After the
war ended, freed slaves flocked to Texas and founded a freedmen's town on the outskirts of
Dallas. By 1870, the year Texas was readmitted to the Union, Dallas had a population of
about 3000.
Dallas grew steadily for the next 30 years. The successful lobbying for two railroads, the
Houston and Texas Central in 1872 and the Texas and Pacific in 1873, initiated this
growth. As a rail crossroads, Dallas became a regional transport center for products
headed to Northern and Eastern manufacturing centers. Cotton became the principal source
of income, but the city also attracted merchants and banking and insurance companies eager
to exploit available transportation and communication facilities. Throughout this period,
business and political leaders forged close ties, thus shaping the character of the city
and guiding its economic direction. By 1890 Dallas had 38,067 residents and was the
largest city in the state.
The Panic of 1893, a national economic crisis, slowed the city's business development.
Dallas recovered with the increase in agricultural prices in the early 20th century, and
doubled its size with the annexation of Oak Cliff and other areas. In the century's second
decade, Dallas began implementing an urban design plan created by George Kessler, a city
engineer. The Kessler Plan connected Oak Cliff and Dallas, established greenbelts, and
attempted to chart and direct urban growth. Control of the Trinity River also took a high
priority. The city built levees and steel viaducts, and in a massive engineering project,
the river channel was moved, straightened, and confined for flood control. The Great
Depression of the 1930s had a severe impact on Dallas, but the crisis was partially
alleviated by the discovery of the East Texas oil fields, which made Dallas a center of
the petroleum business. Oil and the booming defense industry during World War II
(1939-1945) stimulated growth and helped Dallas to diversify its economy.
Dallas won a reputation as a politically ultraconservative city in the 1950s. The
assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza was a shock to the residents of
Dallas and moderated somewhat the city's politics. Nevertheless segregation continued in
the city, and the flight of white residents from the inner city intensified racial
animosities. The city prospered economically with the rising oil prices of the 1970s and
the resulting construction boom. The collapse of oil prices in the 1980s, the failure of
many local savings and loan institutions, and the resulting collapse in real estate prices
caused the city to tumble into an economic depression. Dallas civic leaders launched an
economic program that included renovating part of the downtown area and attracting new
industries. The city leadership also worked hard at smoothing racial tensions, which
remained despite sizable growth in minority populations and improved sensitivity on the
part of white leaders. Although Dallas was one of the last major cities to recover from
Texas's mid-1980s economic collapse, the strength of its basic economy, its geographic
location, and the recovery of the state economy ultimately combined to slow the economic
decline in the Dallas region.
Contributed By:
Robert A. Calvert
