Bedias took its name from North and South Bedias creeks, which were named for the Bidai Indians, an agricultural people reputed to have been the area’s oldest inhabitants; “Bidai” means “brushwood,” possibly referring to the material used in their dwellings. The first white settlement nearby was founded in 1835 by Thomas P. Plaster and was for a time called Plasterville. In 1903, after a branch of the International & Great Northern Railroad was built to the northeast, the community of “Old” Bedias lost most of its population to “New” Bedias, and people from Pankey and Cotton also moved there. The name Bedias was kept only after a heated struggle in which citizens refused to have the town named for a railroad official. Among the area’s early residents was Sarah Dodson, who made the first “Lone Star” flag in Texas in 1835, lived here from 1844 to 1848, and was buried in Old Bethel Cemetery seven miles west. The region is also notable for many tektites, called “Bediasites,” glassy meteor-like stones that fell to earth 34 million years ago and that Indians called “Jewels of the Moon.”