Geography of Denton County Page: 13
xii, 132 p. : illus. (incl. maps) plates, port. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
Preston. Leaving the river at Preston's Bend, located
on a southern point where the river had meandered in
Grayson County, and northwest of Denison, they fol-
lowed the Preston Road south to Denton and Collin
Counties. This road was named for the Preston family
who lived on this bend on Red River. The road was
originally called the "Central National Road of the
Republic of Texas," but that name seemed too long, so
the people more often spoke of this route as "Preston
Road." It could have been called just as easily, "The
Denton Road." It was a highway definitely planned
by the Eighth Congress of the Republic of Texas in
1844. The major purpose in the minds of the Congress
was to make it easy for the immigrants to come into
Texas. The road began about fifteen miles below the
mouth of Big Elm, or to be more exact, it began on the
\bank of the Trinity River near the present court house
in Dallas. The road was about seventy miles long,
running from the present Dallas County Court House
along a high ridge in Collin County to Preston's Bend
on the Red River. The selection of the site for this
road had several favorable geographic characteristics.
First, it passed through the center of then large Fannin
County. Second, it followed the top of a high ridge
overlooking the fairly broad but very fertile Elm Val-
ley. The valley, which has a width of several miles,
parallels the ridge and the old Preston Road, for about
-13-
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Cowling, Mary Jo. Geography of Denton County, book, 1936; Dallas, Tex.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth90885/m1/26/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.