A settlement began growing in this area of Van Zandt County in the 1850s at the junction of the Dallas-Shreveport Road and Crockett’s Bluff Road. The community was first known as Chrestman, after John W. Chrestman, who purchased property there in 1850. When the county was divided into school districts in 1854, the area surrounding Chrestman became district number 3 and Chrestman School was established. By the end of the nineteenth century, the community gradually began to be called Sand Flat. In 1900, Jacob R. Gillentine submitted an application for a post office for Sand Flat, but the form was altered to read "Fulton," and that was the name approved for the post office. Gillentine served as the first postmaster, but the post office operated only until 1905, while the community locally retained the name Sand Flat. Sand Flat Baptist Church was organized in September 1901 by members of Providence Baptist Church five miles east who wanted a place of worship closer to their homes. Camp number 2266 of the Woodmen of the World was chartered in 1907, and later that year the church and fraternal organization built a shared two-story building. Businesses in the small community included a blacksmith shop, grocery, cotton gin, and saw mill. Methodist and Church of Christ congregations were also organized. Like many small towns, Sand Flat gradually declined as schools were consolidated and population shifted from rural to urban areas.