Cresson

Cresson is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 377 and State Highway 171, seventeen miles south of Fort Worth on the Hood-Johnson county line. The town was named for John Cresson, captain of a wagon train that camped in the area before the Civil War. Cresson later built several houses and a general store on the site of the future town. Stagecoaches operated as early as 1856 from Jacksboro and Weatherford to Cresson and from Cresson to Cleburne, Waco, Granbury, and Stephenville. Around the town longhorn cattle grazed on land leased from the state. Early settlers included the Stewarts, who came from Kentucky in 1860, the Slocums, who operated the Stage Coach House, the Fidlers, who built the first hotel, and W. W. Wolf, who owned and operated the first cotton gin. In 1887 the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway was built through Cresson and extended to Granbury, the county seat. The railroad bolstered the economy in Cresson by opening the Fort Worth and Granbury markets to the town's agricultural products and livestock. When the Santa Fe Railroad was extended through the county in the same year, it crossed the Fort Worth and Rio Grande at Cresson. A post office was also established in 1887.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.