On this Mother's Day (I hope everyone enjoyed their day with their families) I took a small drive north of Denton into the town of Valley View, which also sat along the D-C-D (Dallas-Canadian-Denver) Highway that I began researching last week.
The first leg of the drive was along Farm Road 1307.
Valley View, TX, according to the Texas State Historical Association, was first settled in 1870 by the Lee family. L. W. Lee plotted a town on his land in 1872 and named it Valley View.
Eighteen families moved in, and a post office opened in the community that same year. A blacksmith shop opened in 1873, and it was used for the community's first school. By 1884 the town had about 250 residents, three steam gristmills and cotton gins, three general stores and shipped cotton, livestock, and wheat. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway hit the North Texas town in 1886.
At which point, Valley View had four churches and a hotel by 1890, while a school district was incorporated in 1902. A year later, the town witnessed dramatic growth with the completion of a two-story brick school house and six brick business buildings, the arrival of telephone service, and the opening of a bank. The following year the
Valley View News began publishing weekly.
The community had an estimated population of 600 by 1914. However, two fires struck the town in 1924. In the fall, the east side of the town square was burned down and on the morning of December 19 bank robbers started a second fire as they robbed the First National Bank of $5,000.
Valley View's population was estimated at 700 from the 1920s through the mid-1960s. In 1970 it was 805, but the town declined during the next decade. When Valley View formally incorporated in 1979, it had 514 inhabitants and six businesses.
Today, a few shops decorate the town including, Rustic Ranch Furniture and an auto repair shop, which used to be a GMC dealership.
The pioneers of Valley View lie up the road from the square.
Sources:
1.
Valley View Wikipedia
2.
Valley View THSA
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