Gainesville, Texas

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (April 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article is written like a travel guide. Please help improve the article by introducing an encyclopedic style or move the content to Wikivoyage. (December 2009)

Gainesville, Texas
City
Highway 82, Lawrence Street
Location of Gainesville, Texas
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Cooke
Government
• City Council	Mayor Jim Goldsworthy Mayor Pro-Tem Ray Nichols Beverly Snuggs Carolyn Hendricks Vince Rippy Philip Neelley Kenneth Keeler
• City Manager	Barry Sullivan
• City Attorney	Belvin (Bill) Harris
• Fire Chief	Steve Boone
• Police Chief	Steven Fleming
Area
• Total	17.0 sq mi (44.1 km2)
• Land	17.0 sq mi (44.0 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0.1 km2)
Elevation	751 ft (229 m)
Population  (2010)
• Total	16,002
• Density	914.1/sq mi (352.9/km2)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
ZIP codes	76240-76241
Area code	940
FIPS code	48-27984Template:GR
GNIS feature ID	1373791Template:GR
Website	Gainesville.TX.us/

Gainesville is a city in and the county seat of Cooke County, Texas, United States.Template:GR The population was 15,538 at the 2000 census.

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Founded in 1850, the city of Gainesville was established on a 40-acre tract of land donated by Mary E. Clark. City residents called their new community Liberty, which proved short-lived, as a Liberty, Texas already existed. It was suggested by one of the original settlers of Cooke County, Colonel William Fitzhugh, that the town be named after General Edmund Pendleton Gaines. Gaines, a United States General under whom Fitzhugh had served, had been sympathetic with the Texas Revolution.

The first hint of prosperity arrived with the Butterfield Stagecoach in September 1858, bringing freight, passengers, and mail. During the Civil War, the Great Hanging, a controversial trial and hanging of suspected Union loyalists, brought the new town to the attention of the state and came close to ripping the county apart. In the decade after the Civil War, Gainesville had its first period of extended growth, catalyzed by the expansion of the cattle industry in Texas. Gainesville, only seven miles from the Oklahoma border, became a supply point for cowboys driving herds north to Kansas. The merchants of Gainesville reaped considerable benefits from the passing cattle drives.

Within 20 years, the population increased from a few hundred to more than 2,000. Gainesville was incorporated on February 17, 1873 and by 1890 was established as a commercial and shipping point for area ranchers and farmers. In the late 1870s two factors drastically altered the historic landscape of North Central Texas. The first of these was barbed wire. In 1875, Henry B. Sanborn, a regional sales agent for Joseph Glidden’s Bar Fence Company of DeKalb, Illinois traveled to Texas. That autumn, he chose Gainesville as one of his initial distribution points for the newly invented barbed wire which his employer had patented the previous year. On his first visit to Gainesville, he sold ten reels of the wire to the Cleaves and Fletcher hardware store –the first spools of barbed wire ever sold in Texas.

World War II had an enormous impact on Cooke County. Camp Howze, an army infantry training camp, was established on some of the best farmland in the county. The construction of the camp helped bring Cooke County out of the Great Depression by providing jobs. The county population doubled and the area boomed. In the last several years, tourism has brought renewed prosperity to the area. The return of Amtrak on June 14, 1999 brought Gainesville back full circle to one of the original sources of its growth and success. In the early 1990s, Gainesville had 600 businesses and a population of 14,587. In the year 2000, the population was 15,538, with the population after the 2010 Census being just over 16,000 people.

Gainesville is home to a courthouse with an octagonal rotunda topped by stained glass, erected in 1910. "The 1912 Cooke County Courthouse was designed by the Dallas firm of Lang & Witchell. The courthouse was designed in the Beaux Arts style with some Prairie Style features and influences from famed Chicago architect Louis Sullivan. The courthouse in the center of Gainesville features black and white marbled interiors and a tall central atrium capped by a stained glass skylight under the tower." The courthouse is undergoing a major renovation project, resulting in the move of many county offices to surrounding buildings; thus allowing for construction to take place. ref>"Historic Courthouses in Texas". Texas Historical Commission. Archived from the original on 2007-06-12. Retrieved 2007-07-23. </ref>

During the American Civil War, Gainesville was the scene of what came to be known as "The Great Hanging". Confederate soldiers rounded up over 200 Texans, and on October 1, 1862, hanged 42 after a mock trial. This event sparked a reign of terror in which dozens of Texans suspected of being loyal to the Union were lynched by Confederate soldiers.^[1][2]

The courthouse grounds feature a towering Confederate soldier memorial, erected in the early 20th century by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), topped by a Confederate soldier facing northward, and bearing the following inscription honoring Confederate casualties of war:

God holds the scales of justice;

He will measure praise and blame;

And the South will stand the verdict,

And will stand it without shame.

Oh, home of tears, but let her bear

This blazoned to the end of time;

No nation rose so white and fair,

None fell so free of crime.

Other memorials on the courthouse grounds honor veterans of other U.S. wars.

Gainesville was once home to Camp Howze, one of the largest infantry replacement training centers during World War II. Only a few remnants of the camp continue to exist, but are now located on private property.

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 15,538 people, 5,969 households, and 4,005 families residing in the city. The population density was 914.1 people per square mile (352.9/km²). There were 6,423 housing units at an average density of 377.9 per square mile (145.9/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 80.77% White, 6.00% African American, 1.33% Native American, 0.55% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 9.09% from other races, and 2.23% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.47% of the population.

There were 5,969 households out of which 33.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.2% were married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.9% were non-families. 29.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.2% under the age of 18, 10.9% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 88.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,571, and the median income for a family was $37,137. Males had a median income of $30,480 versus $21,459 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,154. About 17.0% of families and 20.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.5% of those under age 18 and 12.7% of those age 65 or over.

The City of Gainesville is served by the Gainesville Independent School District. The district consists of the following campuses:

• Gainesville Head Start (Toddlers/Pre-School)
• Thomas A. Edison Elementary (Kindergarten & Grade 1)
• W. E. Chalmers Elementary (Grades 2 & 3)
• Robert E. Lee Intermediate (Grades 4 & 5)
• Gainesville Middle School (Grades 6, 7, & 8)
• Gainesville High School (Grades 9, 10, 11, & 12)

The high school boasts various championships won from athletic and academic competitions. The GHS Varsity Basketball team won the 3A-Division I State Championship in 2002, and the Varsity Football team won the 3A-Division I State Championship in 2003. One notable member of the 2003 championship football team was Darcel McBath, who was recruited by and played for the Texas Tech University Red Raiders and drafted in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. Another player that went on to play for the NFL is Kevin Mathis, who played first for the Dallas Cowboys, then for the Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints. The high school has also been historically competitive in UIL (University Interscholastic League) academic competition; boasting numerous district, regional, and state championships in many categories. Furthermore, Gainesville High School boasts a 15.3 student to teacher ratio^{[citation needed]}.

North Central Texas College, a five campus community college system is headquartered in Gainesville; with the main campus being located on the west side of Gainesville. The college serves the North Texas area, with locations in Gainesville, Bowie, TX, Corinth, TX, Graham, TX, and Flower Mound, TX. Satellite locations also exist at Northwest High School, Little Elm High School, and Graham Education & Workforce Center. NCTC began as Gainesville Junior College in 1924, and because of this it has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operated community college in the state of Texas. In the past several years, NCTC has come to be noted for a their ever-growing health science program. They offer help such as writing and math labs, tutoring centers for people to get more out of their education. Some of the degrees of study offered include Certified Nursing Assistant, Associates degree Nursing (LVN), Registered Nurse, Emergency Medical Technician, and Radiology Technician programs. As well as none credited class for you to take that could be very useful in the future such as potery, and cake decorating if thats some thing you enjoy.

NCTC Lion/Lady Lion Athletics, which consists of Baseball, Softball, Volleyball, and Women's Tennis competes as part of the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association). The NCTC Lion Baseball team won the 2001 NJCAA National Championship.

Gainesville, Texas is often associated by visitors with Thackerville, Oklahoma. Thackerville is home to a WinStar Casino which is expanding. The casino is the largest building in Thackerville being a mile long from end to end, and employees usually reside in Gainesville while visitors stay in the Gainesville Motels.^[3] This was featured in KTEN News in September 2009.^[4]

Gainesville is also home to a large outlet mall (The Gainesville Factory Shops) attracting visitors from north Texas as well as southern Oklahoma.

Gainesville is located at 33°37′49″N 97°8′25″W / 33.63028°N 97.14028°W / 33.63028; -97.14028 (33.630360, -97.140323).Template:GR

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 17.04 square miles (44.1 km²), of which, 17.0 square miles (44 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km²) of it (0.18%) is water.

The town is located at the interchange of two major thuroughfares; U.S. Route 82 going east/west overpassing Interstate 35 (north/south). Though not considered a part Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the relatively short distance between them allows Gainesville residents to easily commute for work and/or business. The next largest towns in all directions are as follows:

• North - Ardmore, OK
• South - Denton, TX
• East - Sherman, TX
• West - Wichita Falls, TX

Gainesville usually enjoys typically sunny weather similar to the rest of Texas with the exception of a few natural disasters.

On June 18, 2007, thunderstorms moved through Gainesville, resulting in intense flooding. Over 7 inches (180 mm) fell in Gainesville and nearby Sherman. On June 20 around 5:00 A.M., straight lines winds hit and Wichita Falls had winds up to 94 mph (151 km/h). Much of the center of the town was flooded and several people died.^{[citation needed]}

The Texas Youth Commission operates the Gainesville State School in an unincorporated area east of Gainesville.^[5]

Gainesville has a zoo, a historic train station, and a 45-acre (180,000 m²) fully integrated soccer complex. It has miniature 1/4 size replica steam engine passenger train which was dissassembled and reassembled for viable transportation for 50 passengers for a tour around Leonard Park.

City Parks include:

• BP Douglas Park
• Edison Park
• Forsythe Transportation Skate Park
• Georgia Davis Park
• Heritage Park North
• Heritage Park South
• Home Grown Hero Walking Trail
• Jaycee Park
• Keneteso Park
• Leonard Park
• Moffett Park
• Pecan Creek Park
• Gainesville Tennis Court Area
• Washington Park

• Lew Allen, United States Air Force four-star General; former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force; former Director of the National Security Agency
• Cody Hart, professional bull rider, 1999 Professional Bull Riders world champion
• Kevin Mathis, former NFL cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys and other teams
• Darcel McBath, NFL safety formerly of the Denver Broncos
• Charlie Paddock, Olympic sprinter who won gold in 1920
• Jim Rayburn, founder of non-denominational Christian youth organization Young Life
• Aurelian Smith, Jr., aka Jake "The Snake" Roberts, professional wrestler

Gainesville is served by a tax-funded public hospital district which operates North Texas Medical Center, formerly known as Gainesville Memorial Hosipital.

Gainesville Daily Register Weekly News of Cooke County

• KGAF - 1580 AM
• KPFC - 91.9 FM (Camp Sweeney)

• Gainesville, Texas gets over the air reception from Sherman-Ada which also includes OETA translator out of Ardmore, Oklahoma Amplified outdoor antennas can receive stations from Dallas, Texas.

Gainesville has a historic rail depot.

Major highways are

• U.S. Route 82
• Interstate 35

• City
• Chamber
• College
• ISD
• KGAF
• Mall
• Medical Center
• Newspaper
• Zoo