Comanche, Wichita, Kichai and Caddo Indians were present in North Texas during 1600-1800. Native American populations were driven out of this part of Texas into Oklahoma Territory with the 1883 election of the third president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar. Despite this, Lamar Middle School was named in his honor.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006)
Through the Empresario Land Grants system, Europeans settled in North Texas at the beginning of the 1840s. The Peters Colony, for which the road was named, encompassed the local area.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006);
Elisha and Mary Chinn left their home in North Carolina and traveled in their covered wagon with their family, livestock, and their slaves to Alabama where they joined a wagon train headed for Texas, arriving in 1852. The fifth settlement of pioneers who had received land grants from the Republic of Texas to Peter's Colony already had been established in the area in 1845, the year Texas became the twenty-eight state of the Union. A pioneer named Smith first owned property in what is now the center of Copper Canyon. He sold it to Abraham S. Loving in 1847, and Loving sold it to Elisha Chinn in 1853. The Chinns' new home, which is located in what is now Highland Village, was part of the first large effort to settle the western frontier, and it was essentially a farming community. They donated a plat near Lockhart Springs for a church to be built. In 1858, the Chinn's and their neighbors built a one-room slab hut. Initially named Antioch, the building was later named Chinn's Chapel. The road, named after it, currently serves as a border for other neighboring towns.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006); Copper Canyon's Website
Andrew and Etta Morris family has owned land in the Metroxplex from the original Peters Colony land grant in 1850. The family was the original owners of the Orand Ranch in Flower Mound. Their original homestead was on Morriss Road and the family still holds land there today.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006)
Samuel Lusk was a local land owner. The center of his land was around the Garden Ridge Road and FM 1171 crossroads. He formed 14th Calvary in Denton in the fall of 1861 and returned from the Civil War a decorated Captain. The Samuel Lusk Amphitheatre as well as the road are named in his honor.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006)
The Kirthpatrick Road was named after the Kirkpatrick family. David Foster Kirkpatrick and Nancy Baskin Kirkpatrick and their eight children emigrated from Tennessee by ox wagon to the Flower Mound area in 1869. Their homestead was located in the the Northeast corner of Flower Mound.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006)
In the 1940's the territory north of Lake Grapevine, was being set up as a prime target for invasion by Mafia bosses from New York and Chicago. One of the more famous personalities who led the assault was Benny Binion. Binion's plan called for conspiring with some of the local Dallas gamblers and petty hoods to organize and move into the area with drugs, prostitution, gambling, and union filtrations to make Dallas a major southern stronghold. Should Binion prove successful, he would become a member in good standing with the Chicago bosses and run the Dallas mafia connection.
Binion had only one small problem. A wealthy and successful gambler named Herb Nobel was well known in the Dallas area. Noble was strongly opposed to the infiltration of organized crime taking over the city, and he took a stand against Binion. Nobel retreated to his ranch and recruited his own group of loyalists to his cause. The headquarters for his operation were the stone cabins on a hill near Grapevine Lake, in what is now the Point Noble subdivision.
Dallas found itself in a full scale turf war, complete with mafia hitmen, car bombs, wholesale murder, blazing gunfights and car chases in the streets, on a regular basis as the two men squared off to determine who would control the city. The Northern Bosses could not understand, nor could Binion explain to them, how one man could be so effective in thwarting the efforts on a huge syndicate. All Binion had to do was eliminate Noble. As a result of the street war, Noble was shot twelve different times, but each time, he survived. Some of the best assassins the Mob had at their disposal could not seem to silence Noble. Eventually Herb was given the nickname "Cat" Noble because he seemed to defy the odds with his nine lives. The mob once tried using a car bomb to kill Noble, but instead killed his wife. According to this webmaster's other sources, Noble was finally killed by a bomb planted in his mailbox, which used to stand on the western side of the Wichita Trail bridge. Because of the nationwide publicity over the Binion/Noble feud, Binion was unpopular with national Mafia bosses, who felt that he was drawing negative attention to their operations in Las Vegas and Dallas. After one of Binion's bodyguards committed a murder in the men's room of Binion's Westerner Club in Vegas, the mobsters helped the feds put Binion away. Binion lost his gambling license in 1951, and went to Fort Leavenworth federal penitentiary in 1953 on a five-year tax evasion rap.
Source: The Messenger; Wikipedia; Discover Flower Mound (2005); "City To Die For"
During the late 1950's Andre Gerault led an effort to get a water system built in the area. For this and his many contributions to the community, Mr Gerault was awarded the 1993 Flower Mound Chamber of Commerce "Lifetime Achievement Award" and named a Rotary International "Paul Harris Fellow." Gerault Park is named after Mr Gerault and is located on the land where the Gerault family homestead was located.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006)
William "Doc" Wilkerson played an instrumental role in both the incorporation of Flower Mound and in helping get its first water system installed. Mr. Wilkerson became the Town's second mayor, serving from 1968-1973. During his time in office, Mr. Wilkerson was responsible for the introduction of metro phone service and required standards for sewer, septic, and electrical wiring. The Flower Mound Chamber of Commerce named Doc as their "Citizen of the Year" in 1985. Wilkerson Park is named for Mr Wilkerson
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006)On July 4, 1953, a legend moved to Flower Mound. Only 23 years
old at the time, Bob Rheudasil had been lured here from rural Paris, Texas, to
work for Edward Marcus. He didn't come because he applied for the job - he was
asked to come. You see, it was Marcus' desire to own 50 head of the finest
registered Angus Cattle at Black Mark Farms and he had heard from the Texas
Angus Association the man to oversee that operation was Bob Rheudasil.
By 1957, Rheudasil became the foreman of all Marcus' land (eventually 3700
acres) in Denton County. Edward Marcus, the second of four sons of the famous
Neiman-Marcus empire, was a visionary. He believed Flower Mound and the area
surrounding would someday be a thriving hot spot in the United States, filled
with churches, schools and homes, even though there were few signs of progress
in his enormous Texas fields.
Edward Marcus and his wife had a weekend house on the property where Forestwood
Middle School now stands. She was from New York and fond of the country, but
didn't necessarily want to stay out there. He was a Texan and came to visit much
more often. He loved to go down to the feed store or out to meet people because
he truly wanted to know them and be a part of the community. He was also very
productive of the bif trees that dotted the landscape, and he was convinced that
someday people would care about them.
Marcus wanted to build a world-class show barn in Flower Mound. He hired a
noted architect to build it, along with other houses, and painted everything
yellow. He said visitors would remember that fancy yellow barn and that would
work until the cattle were good enough to be remembered.
Later, when the 100 acres across from the barn was about to be sold for a
trailer park, he had Rheudasil buy the parcel and develop it to prove to the
utility company that they could bury the lines. He named it Flower Mound Farms,
located just off FM 3040 by the Presbyterian Church, establishing it with
two-acre tracts and restrictions, and he loved to show it off to people who came
to visit him from around the world.
Developing Flower Mound Farms got the two men into the tree farming business,
relocating some trees for the power lines to be buried and planting them in a
row on some pastureland near what is now Rheudasil Park. As it progressed into a
tree farm, Marcus hired top consultants to do it right. The timing could not
have been better. The City of Houston didn't have any trees and they shipped
thousands down there. In turn, they gave him the idea to buy trees and offer
them for sale from the Neiman-Marcus catalog.
Rheudasil bought thousands of live oaks for the southern states and red oaks for
the northern states and shipped them all over the world from the ranch. Marcus
also saw to it that trees were planted in front of any church west of 35E coming
into Flower Mound. He wanted the trees to provide visitors and residents with a
welcoming embrace upon arrival into the city. Acres of beautifully manicured
crepe myrtles soon became a showplace for people to come and visit. Such
dedication even caught Lady Bird Johnson’s eye, who came down to visit the farm
as she was just launching her famous beautification program.
Rheudasil worked for Edward Marcus for 25 years until he died in 1977. He stayed
on to help his wife until 1983 when she sold off the remaining property. The
land Edward Marcus donated to the school district would eventually be home to a
high school named after him. "I still miss them and think of them often," he
said. "he would love Flower Mound today."
In the early 1960's, an election was held to see if people wanted to file suit
to gain independence against the City of Irving. At the same time, they also
incorporated and held the first elections for mayor and council to establish a
commission form of government. No name was on the ballot, just a place for write
ins, and Rheudasil's name was written in for mayor. He served as mayor for eight
years and his wife, Pat, was the City Secretary. Fortunately Marcus allowed him
to spend time on his elected office because he thought it was important for the
development of the community.
"When the town incorporated there was no place to meet, so we mat at Marcus'
cabin" said Rheudasil." Then we got enough money out of the water system loan to
build a water tower, pump station, and conference room. It was located where
Kroger is now and was officially the first city hall."
Rheudasil said he thinks the growth and change in Flower Mound has been good,
but he expresses concern over people who move to the town and then don't want
any more people to come after them.
"What if the people of Flower Mound had said they didn't want me to come in
1953?" he said. "You can't live this close to DFW airport, Dallas and Fort Worth
without expecting change and growth. We are in the land of milk and honey.
People ask me if I miss the old days and I tell them I don't because Mr. Marcus
prepared me for the growth and taught me to appreciate progress."
To honor his contributions to the town, Flower Mound named a park in his honor. Rheudasil Park now serves as a favorite place for families to gather and will
always be a reminder of the service of this great man. His son-in-law is
currently developing the first all-green subdivision, Rheudasil Farms.
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2005);
Rheudasil Farms
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006);
Source: Discover Flower Mound (2006);
Canada Dry executive Alan L. Powdermaker relocated his family from New York to Texas and built a ranch designed to entertain private groups in an authentic western setting. Powdermaker and his wife, Renate (the "R" in Circle R) made the move, started-up the new family business, and on Sept. 20, 1973 Circle R Ranch hosted its first event - a 28-person meeting for Eastman Kodak. From that modest beginning Circle R Ranch has grown and today hosts more than 350,000 guests each year for special events, corporate meetings, company picnics and team-building programs.
Source: Circle R Ranch