The History of Garland, Texas

Settlers moved into this part of the old Peters Colony around 1850, and by the 1870s two communities had taken root near each other: Duck Creek, named for the local creek, and Embree, named for a local physician. When the railroads arrived in the 1880s, the two towns went to war — commercially and bitterly — over which would control the depot and the future. The fight got ugly enough that in 1887 the U.S. Congress simply consolidated them into a single town, and it was named Garland for Augustus H. Garland, then the U.S. Attorney General. Rivalry settled by federal decree.

The railroad made Garland a shipping point. Sitting on two lines, the town became a major onion-shipping center in the early 20th century, moving the crop from the surrounding Blackland farms. But Garland's real long-term identity became manufacturing. Factories put down roots — including Resistol, the famous Western hat maker — and the city built one of the larger industrial bases in North Texas, turning out everything from hats to electronics as the decades went on. Garland also chose to run its own municipal electric utility, Garland Power & Light, which still powers the city today.

As Dallas grew, Garland grew with it, filling in as a large, solidly middle-class suburb on the northeast side. It never chased the corporate-headquarters glamour of the northern suburbs; it stayed a city of factories, neighborhoods, and working families, and it grew past 240,000 people doing it. The rivalry that founded it is a footnote now, but the practical, unpretentious streak it started with never really left.