Farmers Branch

Farmers Branch is on Interstate Highway 35 and State Highway 77 twelve miles north of downtown Dallas in northwestern Dallas County. The Burlington Northern and Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroads serve the city. Farmers Branch was the location in 1845 of the first office of the Texan Land and Emigration Company, or the Peters colony. It was the most well-known Dallas County town during the 1840s because of its advertising throughout Europe and the United States. Thomas Keenan, Isaac B. Webb, and William Cochran all arrived in 1842 and received original land grants in the area that became the site of Farmers Branch. By 1843 settlers had established a community called Mustang Branch, named for the Mustang grapes that grew along the creek. Cochran later changed the name to Farmers Branch because of the area's rich farmland.

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.