The settlement that became the town of Bonham began here on a 1,250-acre land grant from the Republic of Texas to Bailey Inglish (1797-1867), a former sheriff of Miller County, Arkansas, who led a train of settlers by oxcart to this site in 1837. Here they built a log stockade and a blockhouse with gun ports for community defense. In a typical fight in 1841, Indians were repulsed, but they captured two young boys who were hunting cows near the fort; the boys later returned. Called Bois D'arc in 1840, the town was renamed in 1843 to honor Texas War for Independence hero Col. Ames Butler Bonham (1807-1836).