Lancaster, Texas

How Lancaster is governed

Form of government not yet listed.

1 of 14 positions listed. Gray dashed boxes are placeholders waiting for a name.

• Mayor

  Executive

  • Clyde C. Hairston per Wikidata

  The city's chief elected official. Presides over the executive branch, proposes the budget and represents the city.

  • City Manager / Administrator

    Executive

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    The professional administrator who runs day-to-day operations (in some cities appointed by the council instead of the mayor).

    • Police Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the police department.

    • Fire Chief

      Administration & departments

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      Leads the fire and emergency services department.

    • Public Works Director

      Administration & departments

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      Streets, water, sewer, and city buildings.

    • Finance Director

      Administration & departments

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      The budget, taxes, and city accounts.

    • Planning & Zoning Director

      Administration & departments

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      Land use, zoning, building permits.

    • Parks & Recreation Director

      Administration & departments

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      Parks, programs, and public facilities.

• City Council

  Legislative

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  The elected body that passes ordinances, sets the tax rate and approves the budget.

  • City Clerk

    Administration & departments

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    Keeps the official records, runs meeting agendas and, often, local elections.

  • City Attorney

    Administration & departments

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    The city's lawyer; advises officials and prosecutes ordinance violations.

  • Boards & Commissions

    Legislative

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    Citizen advisory bodies, such as planning, zoning appeals and library boards.

• Municipal Court

  Judicial

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  Hears traffic, ordinance and other minor cases.

  • Municipal Judge

    Judicial

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    Presides over the municipal court.

Website

lancaster-tx.com

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Population over time

From 36,361 in 2010 to 41,275 in 2020 (+13.5%).

History

Early settlement

In 1841, an act of the Republic of Texas Congress authorized President Mirabeau Lamar to enter into a contract with William S. Peters and 19 associates to promote settlement in North Texas, and paid the company with free land in exchange for recruiting new settlers. Around 600 families settled in what became known as Peters Colony from 1841 through 1844. The Peters' group advertised heavily in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Tennessee, so many of the earliest settlers were from those states. The first group to settle in the Lancaster area was Roderick Rawlins and his family from Greene County, Illinois. They left for Texas in September 1844. Rawlins and two of his sons-in-law came ahead to select the general area where they would settle. They chose an uninhabited area south of Dallas along the north bank of Ten Mile Creek as the site of their new settlement. In December 1844, the three men went back to Lamar County near the Red River to bring the rest of their wagon train. All of the settlers had arrived by January 2, 1845, and they formed a community known as Hardscrabble. It consisted of two rows of log cabins with a street running north and south. In total, 30 men, women, and children lived in Hardscrabble.

Several miles north of Hardscrabble, a second community called Pleasant Run was established in 1846 by Polly Rawlins, one of Roderick's daughters, and her husband Madison Moultrie "M.M." Miller. Together, the Millers built a two-room structure, with one room used as a general store and the other for living. By 1848, the structure had grown to 15 rooms, a separate store, and a warehouse. A post office was established with biweekly mail delivery and Miller as postmaster. By 1850, he had laid out a town and sold lots, but never filed a plat of the community with Dallas County. At its peak, Pleasant Run boasted a stage stop, school, and steam-powered grist mill in addition to Miller's store. Accelerated by the death of M.M. Miller in 1860, Pleasant Run declined. Shortly after the Rawlins' settlers abandoned the Hardscrabble settlement, Lancaster became the dominant community in the area.

Founding of Lancaster

The founder of Lancaster was "A" Bledsoe (Some sources list his name as Abram Bledsoe. or Albert A. Bledsoe). He was born in Lancaster, Kentucky, in 1801. According to family lore, when his father Moses first looked at his newborn son, he is said to have remarked, "he looks like a Bledsoe." Thus his name, A Bledsoe, is unmarked by a period.

Bledsoe surveyed and staked off the original town of Lancaster in 1852. He purchased 430 acres of land from the widow of Roderick Rawlins, and modeled it after his Kentucky hometown. The layout featured a town square with streets entering from the center of each side rather than from the corners. Bledsoe began selling lots at a public auction in 1853, reportedly giving as many as two-thirds of them to settlers from the nearby Pleasant Run community. The official plat of the town of Lancaster was not filed with Dallas County until 1857. Bledsoe later served as Dallas County judge and state comptroller. He died in 1882.

In 1860, a post office was established in Lancaster.

Progress and challenges

During the American Civil War, the Tucker, Sherrod, and Company contracted with the State of Texas to manufacture replicas of the .44 caliber Colt Dragoon from a factory on West Main Street in Lancaster. John M. Crockett, former mayor of Dallas and lieutenant governor of Texas, served as superintendent of the arms factory. In the early years of Reconstruction, a drought crippled the economy to such an extent that few residents could afford more than the most basic of necessities. The economy did not fully recover until well into the 1870s, due in large part to the town's proximity to heavily trafficked cattle trails. The first public well was dug in the city's town square in 1876. Fires destroyed parts of the square in 1877, 1889, and again in 1918, each time being promptly rebuilt. Local telephone service came to Lancaster in 1881. Lancaster was incorporated on May 5, 1886. One year later, the Lancaster Herald newspaper began printing.

In December 1888, Lancaster's train depot opened as a stop on the Dallas and Waco Railway. In 1891, it became part of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (MKT) line, running from Dallas to the Gulf Coast of Texas. The Lancaster Tap Railroad, completed in 1890, connected the MKT line in Lancaster with the Dallas-Houston line of the Houston and Texas Central Railway (H&TC) in Hutchins, 4.5 miles away. It operated for 44 years. Rene Paul "R.P." Henry opened the first official bank in 1889. By 1897, the town had a public school, Masonic Temple, a chapter of the International Order of Odd Fellows, and a variety of Christian churches. From 1898 to 1901, Texas Christian University founder Randolph Clark established Randolph College in Lancaster. After its closure, the facilities were used continuously until they burned in a 1912 fire.

Early 20th century

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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