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Settlers traveling to this area of Texas after it opened for settlement as part of the Peters Colony found free land, clear spring water and plenty of timber. Those who decided to stay named it Lebanon and began to establish homes and farms. On March 1, 1860, the U.S. Postal Service granted a post office to Lebanon, with Phillip Huffman serving as first postmaster. Although a general store begun by Z. T. Rainey in 1858 closed during the Civil War, other businesses soon were established. Located on the route of the historic Preston Road/Shawnee Trail, Lebanon was a popular stopping place for cattle drivers who used that road as their north-south route. Primarily a farming community, the town grew in the 1880s and 1890s to include a blacksmith shop, dry goods store, a saddlery, churches, doctors' offices, a hotel, tavern and other businesses. A two-story union school was built in 1885 to serve the schoolchildren in the community. In 1902, the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad bypassed Lebanon, which resulted in an exodus of residents and businesses to the new railroad town of Frisco. The school closed in 1947, and by 1959 there were fewer than a dozen homes remaining in Lebanon. As the 21st century dawned, only three buildings stood from the original townsite, but the history of Lebanon remains as a part of the urban and suburban development in this part of Collin County. (2002) |
