Canton

History

Canton was surveyed as early as 1840 by a company of men under Dr. W. P. King. The community stands on the original survey of Jesse Stockwell, an early settler in the area. No settlement was made until 1850, when the town was laid out and named by settlers moving from Old Canton in Smith County, Texas. The first district courthouse at Canton opened in 1850, and a post office, the county's fourth, was established in that year. When the Texas and Pacific Railway was built across the county in 1872, it missed Canton by , and the citizens of Wills Point persuaded county officials to move the county seat there. In the resulting dispute in 1877, armed residents of Canton went to Wills Point to recover the records, and the county judge wired Governor Richard B. Hubbard for aid. The Texas Supreme Court finally decided in favor of Canton. Unwilling to use the railroad at Wills Point, Canton businessmen established Edgewood, to the northwest of town, and built an extension to the railroad at a siding formerly called Stevenson. Property for the town's first school, the Canton Academy, was acquired in 1853. Sid S. Johnson began publication of the Canton Weekly Times, the county's first newspaper, in 1860. A Grange was founded in 1876. By 1890, Canton had a population of 421, flour mills, sawmills, cotton gins, and a bank. Brick buildings were under construction by 1892, and a new brick courthouse was completed in 1894. Iron ore and anthracite coal were discovered in 1887 and 1891. By 1896, the town reached a population high of 800 and had several churches, a steam gristmill and gin, two weekly newspapers, three general stores, and two hotels, but the population had fallen back to 421 by 1904. Canton was incorporated in 1919, and elected a mayor and aldermen. Despite the Great…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.6 square miles (14.6 km2), of which 5.2 square miles (13.4 km2) are land and 0.4 square mile (1.1 km2) is water (7.80%).

Race & ethnicity