Area description continued:
Some say that Dallas, in central Texas on the banks of the Trinity River, is the heart of Texas both culturally and economically. Houstonians disagree but to most of the world Dallas is Texas. In 1839, John Neely Bryan who would die almost destitute in the State Lunatic Asylum explored and surveyed the area that would become Dallas. He came to the Three Forks area of the Trinity River, where the Trinity was easily forded, to start a trading post serving Indians and settlers. This trading center would eventually link North and South Texas. The origin of the name Dallas is unknown. Candidates include: George Mifflin Dallas, vice president of the United States, 1845-49, his brother, Commodore Alexander J. Dallas, United States Navy, and Joseph Dallas who settled near the new town in 1843. The Texas legislature granted Dallas a town charter on February 2, 1856. In 1861 Dallas voters voted 741 to 237 to secede from the Union. After the Civil War freed slaves flocked to Dallas in search of jobs and settled in freed