Midlothian History Furnished by Miss Lilly May Dorsett September, 1955 Contributed by Jean Caddel First settlers of the community were hardy pioneers who came by oxen-drawn wagons from Indiana, Ohio and Illinois in 1848 to pre-empt land that was being offered to settlers of the vast state which had been admitted to the Union three years earlier. Although these residents were active in organizing Ellis County in 1848, four of their number were named to office when first county elections were held in 1850. As the county became settled and more farms were opened, the people decided they needed a closer market than Dallas. The Santa Fe Railroad promised that if the people would give it a right of way it would build a switch from Dallas to Cleburne. The road bed was built in 1882. The Santa Fe Railway which was sponsoring the town had bought a section of land west of the tracks and proposed to build there. On May 10th, 1883, the company having advertised that on that day they would sell town lots to the highest bidders and also they would have a car load of beer for the men and red lemonade for the women and children, free to all. Lots were staked off and numbered. On that day, every man loaded up his family in the wagon, some bringing their dogs along also. They arrived on time, meeting and greeting each other until 11 A.M. Then they heard the whistle of the first train to that vicinity and everyone ran to see who could get the first glass of beer or lemonade. At noon the women spread dinner on a grassy spot near the depot. After dinner was over, someone announced that the community must be named and called for suggestions. Lowes Gap was one and Midway another, as it was midway between Dallas and Cleburne, Fort Worth and Ennis. No decision could be reached by the settlers so the engineer of the train eventually suggested "Midlothian" in memory of his native county in Scotland. The conductor finally said, "We will call it Midlothian as there is no other town in Texas by that name." First survey of Midlothian was made by taking the Santa Fe Depot as the center of a circle with a half-mile radius. This brought the home of Mr. John Williams Hawkins in as the first home of the town. Mr. Tom Morgan built the first house after the town was laid out. The H. & T. C. Railroad did not come to Midlothian until 1886. The first store was moved to town from near the old Lebanon Church, also the Post Office which had been on the barker place near by, known as Barker Post Office. The mail had been brought to the Barker place every Friday by horse back from Waxahachie.   Copyright © 2003-2016, Ellis County TXGenWeb. All Rights Reserved. This page was last modified: Thursday, 01-Jul-2021 13:30:23 MDT