Tom Bean, Texas

Tom Bean is a city in Grayson County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,045 at the 2010 census.

Tom Bean is part of the Sherman–Denison Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography

Tom Bean is located at 33°31′15″N 96°28′58″W / 33.52083°N 96.48278°W / 33.52083; -96.48278 (33.520811, -96.482826). The town is approximately 30 miles south of the Red River and the Oklahoma border. The nearest town with a population over 20,000 people is Sherman, Texas. The area is colloquially referred to as the Sher-Den area or Texomaland - or just Texoma.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.4 square miles (3.6 km²), all of it land.

History

Thomas Bean, a wealthy Bonham landowner and surveyor, donated fifty acres of land in southeast Grayson County to be used for a branch railroad line from Sherman to Commerce. Bean died in 1887; in that year the city of Tom Bean was established. Nearby Whitemound, which was bypassed by the railroad, lost its post office to Tom Bean's city in 1888; many Whitemound settlers moved to the new town. Mr. Bean's estate began to sell town lots surrounding the railroad in the 1890s. The city school was moved in 1891 from a one-room structure to a two-story building with an auditorium. Several Christian denominations, including the Church of Christ, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist, established churches in town. The city charter was signed in 1897 and the first mayor was Ice B. Reeves.