Ladonia
Ladonia is located in southeastern Fannin County. The area was settled around 1840 by James McFarland and Daniel Davis. Other early settlers included Patrick Old, who built the first house, and Frank McCown, the community's first merchant. James H. Cole, a carpenter who moved to the county in 1855, planned and staked out the actual townsite. The community was first known as McCownville. In 1857 McCown changed the name to La Donna, according to local legend to honor La Donna Millsay, a traveler on a wagontrain from Tennessee who had entertained local residents with her singing. By 1858 the settlement had a post office named Ladonia. Ladonia grew rapidly after 1860 because of its location in a fertile farming area and because of the arrival in 1887 of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. The community incorporated in 1885 and around that time had a population of 350, two cotton gins, a bank, a flour mill, a school, and a number of churches. The arrival of the railroad, which town officials had enticed with a bonus, made Ladonia an agricultural marketing town for cotton, corn, oats, and wheat. Its population was reported as 1,500 by the early 1890s and had increased to 2,000 by 1897, when the town reported some 100 businesses, including six dry-goods stores, three drugstores, three cotton gins, and two banks.
Thanks to Mary Helen Haines for providing the envelope on the right.
The Ladonia Historical Preservation Society (now the Burleson History Center) has published a number of books on the history of Ladonia, and they have given us permission to scan those books and make them available through our website.
A History of Ladonia, Texas 1836-1997
A Community Affair, 1836-2000, Ladonia
See also Ladonia, Texas Photographs, 1910-1959.
