Texas Cities

Region: Prairies and Lakes

City is in northeast Tarrant County and was settled in the late 1840s. Milton Moore of North Carolina established a community between Fort Worth and Grapevine. Weldon Bobo came to the area and built a general store and gristmill to serve area farmers in the 1870s. Bobo and a group of farmers agreed to name the community Bedford, after the county in Tennessee from which many of them had come. The community grew and was also the home of Bedford College, founded in 1882. The combination high school-junior college survived until fire gutted the building in 1893. In the early 1900s, the Dallas-Fort Worth Interurban rail line was built south of the Trinity River to other nearby communities. In 1903, the Rock Island Railroad bypassed the city. Growth halted until the construction of nearby military bases and defense plants during World War II. Like most cities in the metroplex, growth continues to parallel those of other cities in the giant suburban area.

Bedford's newest treasure is the Northeast Tarrant County Civil War Memorial, consisting of eight pieces of Georgia gray granite weighing four tons. The memorial names veterans of both armies during the Civil War who lived, owned land, died or are buried in Northeast Tarrant County. At least 19 of the veterans listed on the memorial are buried at the adjacent Old Bedford Cemetery. On the grounds of the Bedford Church of Christ at 2401 Bedford Rd.