The City of Forney we know today began to reawaken in the s as the general population growth of the Metroplex brought renewed residential construction to Forney and with it an economic shot-in-the-arm. Today, new businesses, residential areas, schools and churches are springing up daily as the City poises for its next boom.
As Forney continues to change and grow and we look forward, we must also continue to look back at its past and take pride in the heritage that has been passed on to future generations of Forneyites. Or get it delivered to your email inbox! Soon after McKellar's store was opened, a saloon and a blacksmith shop began operation in Brooklyn. The citizens applied for a post office in , but it was discovered that there was a Brooklyn in Shelby County.
That same year the promoters of the Texas and Pacific Railway, having failed to interest the residents of either the county seat, Kaufman, or Cedar Grove in the rail line, chose to build between these communities and through the Brooklyn settlement. Forney was officially incorporated in , and soon afterward a mayor-alderman form of local government was established.
The railroad and fertile soil attracted settlers to Forney after , and the town grew as a farm center and residential community. The population increased slowly for the next century, to more than 3, residents by The surrounding land is used as ranchland and for the production of cotton, corn, grain, and onions.
Although situated in a predominantly agricultural area, Forney has been a small manufacturing community since Its factories have produced such goods as cottonseed oil, ice, athletic supplies, paper products, and plastics. Fifteen to twenty thousand bales of cotton were ginned each fall and shipped to cotton markets across the United States. Water was a resource that the city most needed in the early days, and several early drilling attempts ended in failure. On Thanksgiving Day in , an artesian well of a depth of feet poured forth, and the town celebrated.
This well supplied Forney as its main water source until the 's, when water was provided from then until present from Lake Lavon and the North Texas Municipal Water District. Electricity and city water and sewer lines were completed in the period, making Forney one the the first smaller Texas towns to have these services.
The new Dixie Highway U. Running through Forney on Church Street, this streetcar-type electric rail line served for 10 years as an advanced commuter type service, a source unequaled before or since. The Works Progress Administration constructed a new Spanish-style high school in Forney during Although in the depths of the Depression, the students of our town could boast one of the most modern and beautiful school buildings in the state when it was completed.
The high school building was located on the original site of the first school in Forney, more than 71 years before. During the period, the town came virtually to a standstill, due primarily to the Second World War. Very few, if any, new businesses were opened in the city. Many larger companies chose Garland and Mesquite during the post-war period, after considering Forney as a prospective home. Little residential building was recorded and the town slumbered as many of its neighbors grew like wildfire.
In the 's, attitudes began to change and key things happened that would affect Forney at a later date. The town joined the North Texas Municipal Water District as a charter member - a bold but unpopular decision of Forney's City Council that assured the town an adequate water supply for years to come. The area north of the new Interstate Highway 20 was exclusively farmland in the 's. Today it composes a major residential section of Forney.
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