Settlers from Ellijay, Georgia, and other southern U.S. communities founded Bluff Dale near the Paluxy River in the late 1860's. Known earlier as Bluff Springs, it was an early school district in 1867. Capt. Wesley Newell Freeman became the first postmaster in 1877, and the village became a stop on the Fort Worth to Yuma, Arizona Territory, mail route. Construction of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway in 1889 led to the town's relocation and economic growth. An 1895 directory reported a population of 800, with three grocery stores, two hotels, a cotton gin, a physician, a blacksmith, and a railroad agent with telegraph station. The turn of the 20th century brought a bank, newspaper, independent school district, and city incorporation, and Bluff Dale remains a historic and vital Erath community.